Learning Curve
by Anya2
Summary: Abby is feeling increasingly frustrated with Stephen’s behaviour towards her, wondering if he cares for her as much as she hopes. Claudia is feeling increasingly frustrated by her lack of field experience, wondering if the others see her as a hindrance.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Learning Curve  
**Characters: **Claudia, Abby, Nick, Stephen, Connor, Ryan, Lester  
**Pairings/Ships:** Nick/Claudia, Abby/Stephen and Abby/Connor.  
**Genre:** Team/Action/Shippy  
**Rating: **PG-13  
**Warnings:** None  
**Spoilers:** Some from 1x01-1x05. Set in an imaginary larger gap between 1x05 and 1x06.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own them...Bugger... (although if anyone at Impossible Pictures wants to offer me a job that'd be great...)

**Summary:**Abby is feeling increasingly frustrated with Stephen's behaviour towards her, wondering if he cares for her as much as she hopes. Claudia is feeling increasingly frustrated by her lack of field experience, wondering if the others see her as a hindrance. Both problems pale into insignificance however when a large predator is on the loose and they find themselves lost and running for their lives.

* * *

**Part One**

Stepping into the clinical environment of the Home Office department, Claudia couldn't help but feel strangely at home. Yes, the place was generally cold and unwelcoming to most but she appreciated the feeling of control it gave her and that made her feel more at ease here than many others would.

Here she knew what she was doing, here things were simple and, quite frankly, less dangerous. Whilst she was getting more and more used to working in the often precarious field situations this assignment placed her in with alarming regularity, it wasn't exactly something she'd trained for.

So far the others had been remarkably understanding. She came from a very different professional background to them and they accepted the mistakes she sometimes made because of that. Still, even though she would not admit it, it certainly had taken some adjusting to on her part. She was used to working in offices, going to meetings, writing reports and liaising with outside organisations, not traipsing through forests, tracking animals, being chased by dinosaurs and running for her life. She only hoped that she would one day find herself as at ease with it all as the others appeared to be but right now she was rather fed up of still feeling annoyingly out of her depth no matter how well she hid it. She realised that it wasn't exactly her fault – they were all field scientists or at the very least had some similar experience or training. She'd gone from studying law straight to becoming a civil servant and the closest she'd ever gotten to an extreme field situation was a couple of the less charming student digs she'd stayed in. It already worried her that the others secretly looked upon her as a hindrance, someone who needed special treatment and extra looking after. The last thing she wanted to be seen as was a burden. The thought left her both annoyed and embarrassed.

"Any developments?" Lester asked, walking past her without stopping, just expecting her to follow as usual. She hurriedly fell into step alongside him.

"No," she stated, already having met Ryan just ten minutes ago to get an update report on the anomaly found that morning in Epping Forest. It had been discovered purely by chance; a member of the public had phoned the police to report an unusual light show he'd seen whilst out walking his dog. Claudia had picked up on the report and had decided that the odd description was worth checking out. Her hunch had been right.

"Cutter and his team have been down there most of the day," she continued, "but whilst the anomaly is active, the area on the other side seems to be deserted. They're guessing that it's some kind of dry season and the animals that would normally be there have migrated elsewhere."

It was the second anomaly in a week to seemingly lead to the same place and time. Nick had found that fact particularly intriguing. It was further evidence to support his theory concerning temporal fault lines that fractured their way along points in space whilst remaining at approximately the same point in time, just the way they'd seen when they'd encountered mosasaur. It certainly was an interesting idea, although Lester seemed to be not particularly bothered by that right now.

"And the security?" he asked, making it clear as always what his top priority was.

"Captain Ryan has a unit there to seal off the area and monitor any changes in the anomaly."

"Good. With a bit of luck this will be another quiet one."

Part of her cringed, wondering if he'd just jinxed it.

"Perhaps," she said, not quite sharing his optimism, knowing this job had a way of turning fortune at the drop of a hat, "Professor Cutter and the others have gone to continue some research they're carrying out on the nature of the anomalies but Abby has stayed with the unit to advise, just in case."

Lester finally stopped walking as he reached his desk and his office.

"Who?" he asked distractedly, flicking through the pile of correspondence awaiting him.

Claudia frowned a little.

"Abby Maitland."

It seemed he was no clearer.

"Who?"

Claudia sighed, wondering how he got away with it. Just how did he manage to stay quite so detached from the people risking their lives for this project? She knew she couldn't do it.

"Slim girl with short blonde hair," she explained, wishing that she didn't have to.

"Right," he said with a nod although she couldn't tell if he truly remembered who Abby was or if he was just pretending that he did to shut her up.

"You know you could try to learn their names," she pointed out bluntly, "These people are doing an awfully good job out there and they didn't even have to get involved in the first place."

Claudia had always found that rather admirable on the part of both Connor and particularly Abby. She herself was assigned to this project and had no choice, Cutter obviously had the issue of his wife to hold him to it and Stephen had been a friend of theirs too and so his reasons for staying were clear. Connor had no real reason as such but she supposed he simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to discover something so wonderful and nor, she suspected, would he want to miss out being in what almost amounted to a secret organisation. Abby, however, had no seeming ties to the project at all. She just wanted to help and Claudia respected that. Clearly a lot more than Lester did. He probably would have laughed at anything so sentimental.

Lester shrugged slightly, nose still buried in his paper work, "We didn't force them to get involved. They did it out of choice. In fact, sometimes I rather wish some of them hadn't."

He looked almost wistful for a moment, perhaps imaging what it would be like to have a team of government experts on this instead. A team who behaved entirely as expected and did exactly as they were told.

"I want you to go out there and check on the situation for yourself," he ordered, clearly having decided that he didn't quite trust Abby to do things by the book and also likely not overly impressed with the unit's ability to think before reacting either. He always had expressed a concern about soldiers being a bit too trigger happy in his experience. Although why he trusted her, Claudia didn't know. Perhaps he thought that she cared enough about her career to not do anything to jeopardise it. Or perhaps he was simply still merrily oblivious to the number of times she'd disregarded what he'd said in favour of one of Nick's plans.

"Fine," she said with a nod, heading towards the door.

"And Claudia," he added, causing her to momentarily turn back, "We've had quite enough deaths recently. Make sure we don't add to the total. It's becoming...difficult."

She nodded again but said nothing, biting her tongue at the idea of someone's death being a mere difficulty. Did he know that the deaths of the diver and Connor's friend Tom were still playing on her mind? Or did he believe, as she sometimes did, that she was in charge out there and held some amount of responsibility for them?

* * *

"You don't have to stay ma'am," the soldier said as he handed Abby a Styrofoam cup full of tea, "We've got it covered." 

She smiled at him in thanks.

"Nah, it's okay. You need someone here who knows about the animals. Just in case."

Of course in truth, her knowledge of the actual animals they would likely face was limited. Having left university after a term to follow a more practical career path, she knew that she wasn't an academic like Cutter or Connor and nor did she really have Stephen's experience in the field. She had, however, worked with and studied reptiles for years and had a pretty good handle on their behaviour by now. So far, from what she'd seen, these creatures were maybe older, larger and often meaner but they still portrayed many of the basic traits and behaviours seen in their descendents today. She may not be a professor but she had practical experience a plenty and she knew that that counted for a lot in situations like these.

Besides, she'd rather be out here, freezing cold and quite frankly bored, than be home alone and sulking about Stephen.

In a way it was good that he could wind her up so much with the simplest of comments. Maybe it went some way towards showing him that she'd lied before; that it hadn't simply been a case of her fancying him and she was now over it.

At first that might have actually been true. After all, why else would she - at a time when she was faced with a creature of impossible size that she knew couldn't exist - pause to think that one of the men who'd turned up and seemed to know what was going on was actually a bit gorgeous? As she got to know him, however, she found out how passionate he was about what he did, how he felt so strongly about issues close to her own heart like conservation and extinction. She admired his adventurous side, his always wanting to try new things and never wanting to stay still. And she couldn't help really but be attracted by his secretiveness. Some women might have been put off by his reticence to say anything about himself, wondering what he was hiding or if he was all he seemed on the surface but she only found him more intriguing because of it. She always had been attracted to the slightly dangerous ones.

Not mention that he was indeed a bit gorgeous.

Even when she had found out that he had a girlfriend she hadn't been put off permanently once the initial surprise had passed. After all, they'd not seen each other in something like two years and when questioned about it he hardly seemed overjoyed that she was back. From what Abby could gather, the mystery woman had left again not long after she'd arrived and Stephen hadn't spoken of her since. He hardly seemed besotted and Abby couldn't help but remind herself that it was her he spent nearly every day working with, not some on and off again girlfriend. And it was also her that he'd asked out on a date, even if he was full of toxins and a bit delirious at the time. He'd even grinned when she'd said she'd stay for breakfast, clearly not at all minding the implication there.

No, there was no doubt in her mind that he did like her but something was clearly holding him back and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. Except of course on occasions like today when she could quite cheerfully tell him to go to hell instead.

He really ought to know better by now than to say stupid, moronic things like 'you should go out with Connor, he's nice' and think she wouldn't mind.

Yeah, because 'nice' was really what she was looking for.

It wasn't that she couldn't stand Connor or anything; she liked him well enough and he wasn't repulsive to look at. He was in fact a sweet guy full of good intentions who was actually becoming a good mate. She wasn't foolish – she knew that he fancied her – but she made it quite clear to him that she liked him a lot as a friend but nothing more. And Stephen was right, he was nice but 'nice' didn't push her buttons and it annoyed her that Stephen thought it would.

A bit of light banter had quickly turned into an argument with her accusing him of not knowing a thing about her and storming off, even more annoyed when he failed to come after her and attempt to apologise. She was almost tempted to go and snog Connor there and then just to try to get some kind of reaction out of Stephen. She hadn't though, knowing how unfair that would be on Connor, and so instead and simply ignored the irritating sod, being the first to offer when Cutter had suggested one of them stay behind at the anomaly.

Stephen had tried to talk her before he left but she had blanked him, annoyed by the fact that in some ways he was perfect and some ways he was the most frustrating person she'd ever met.

And by the fact that despite him making things so difficult for her she still liked him.

The soldier who had brought the tea to her nodded and walked off again without further comment. They weren't exactly the chattiest bunch in the world and, if she was honest, it seemed like they'd be happier if she wasn't around. They probably just saw her as another anomaly to deal with – something that didn't fit very happily in their highly ordered world which could all too easily mess up the structure of the situation. To them she was just another thing to worry about that they could do without under the circumstances. It was a bit unfair really. She knew she wasn't exactly SAS material but she was no damsel in distress. She could look out for herself well enough.

She took a sip of the tea, the comparison between the hot liquid and her cold lips demonstrating just how icy it was now the sun had long since set. The January sky was clear and she could see stars through the skeletal tree branches, the mist from her breath floating up to join them. A thin film of frost was already starting to form on the carpet of dead leaves and the whole scene had an eerie stillness to it. It felt like the world had frozen, shutting down until the first weak rays of dawn awoke it again.

It was the stillness of the air around her that allowed her to notice the subtlest of changes that the anomaly brought about. She frowned at first, wondering if it was her imagination looking for things in the darkness beyond the ring of floodlights the soldiers had erected. But no, she realised, glancing at the meter Connor had set up to measure the magnetic field being produced, seeing the needle angrily flicking from side to side, something was happening.

She stood, slowly and deliberately, looking at the anomaly with some apprehension although she wasn't entirely sure why. She just had a bad feeling that was all. She was about to warn the special forces men when she realised that they must also have picked up on whatever she had, because they were beginning to stand too, holding their weapons, fanning out in front of the anomaly.

The one who had brought her the tea slowly stepped in front of her, pushing her back a little so that she was safety behind the line of armed men. She should have been grateful for his thoughtfulness she supposed but she was too busy staring at the anomaly for it to register.

She watched as it began to flicker and distort further, the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach growing.

It didn't take her long to realise that there was a creature moving on the other side, stepping its way through.

It took even less time for the men to start firing when they saw what it was.

Tea man turned to her sharply, barking out a single order, clearly having already judged this a serious enough threat that he was not confident they could stop it.

"Run!"

Abby didn't hesitate.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two**

Nick frowned in concentration as he studied the map in front of him, using a ruler to draw a more definite line between the two points he'd marked. Stephen was, by contrast, sitting at the computer at his own desk, tapping away into some complex satellite navigation software. Which was all well and good, Nick supposed, but he preferred to have something a little more tangible in front of him whilst he worked.

He extended the line he had drawn down towards London on the reasonable assumption that so far the anomalies seemed to be heading that way. The first had appeared in a place called Toot Hill just southeast of Harlow. The second had appeared that very morning, four days later, in the heart of Epping Forest. It was the fact that both anomalies seemingly led to deserted areas that made him suspicious and closer inspection of the environment on the other side of this new one did suggest that it indeed went to the same place and what appeared to be the same time as the first. That was obviously more than coincidence and it had caused him once again to consider the idea that these anomalies weren't quite as random as they first appeared. That they were, as he had previous considered, following some kind of temporal fault line, the cause of which was still a mystery.

After all, he reasoned, there had to be some kind of method to their appearance otherwise Helen wouldn't have been able to predict where and when they'd occur so accurately.

Taking the data from the only other previous occurrence of this that they knew of (the sequence of anomalies that had led to the Cretaceous period and the mosasaur), he saw that in that instance the anomalies had appeared further apart at random distances, getting weaker as they went and eventually almost disappearing altogether. He still didn't know the cause of them but having even a basic ability to predict where they might show up would be an advantage and could save lives.

Although that prediction did require - in order for them to narrow down the search to a workable area at least - finding two anomalies leading to the exactly same era, which he had to admit was unlikely. Especially considering he suspected that there were many more anomalies appearing than they were actually aware of and that there were many more going undetected because they didn't cause problems. The notion that the scale of this might be much larger than they were aware of was a definite concern to him. As was the idea that they were potentially facing larger and more widespread problems than a few rogue prehistoric creatures. After all, he found it hard to believe that rips in time were actually a good sign.

That was why even a problematic theory was better than no theory at all.

Of course a theory really meant nothing if he couldn't test it and so both he and Stephen were working on predicting where the next one might appear whilst Connor had gone off to investigate and document the time period in question. With no major animals present, they had had to rely on plant life and insects for verification. Connor suspected it was the Eocene, somewhere between thirty four and fifty six million years ago, but he had gone to the library to do some research in order to confirm that. He said he'd call them if and when he found anything of note.

Nick stood up and crossed the room, passing the map to Stephen.

"Plot that," he said, tapping the line he'd drawn, "That's where it should appear next, somewhere along there."

Stephen smiled a little. In truth he'd already done most of that anyway whilst Nick had been off scribbling on pieces of paper. Still he was well used to Cutter's way of working by now and so he said nothing, simply nodded and continued the task at hand.

Nick appeared to be about to start saying something more when his phone rang. He held his hand up to Stephen, a signal that he wouldn't be a moment as he fished the phone out from his pocket and answered it.

"Hello?"

After a pause Stephen noted a small smile slip onto Nick's face and he knew instantly who his friend was talking to.

"It's going very well," Nick continued with a nod, perching temporally on the corner of the desk, "We think we've got a possible route to look into. I'd like to talk to Ryan about setting up some kind of surveillance if that's okay."

Another pause and Nick frowned a little this time.

"Did something happen?"

Whatever she said made him smile a bit more broadly.

"I'm not surprised. He doesn't exactly like us."

Silence again as he listened.

"Well, I'm very glad of that...Okay, see you tomorrow."

He snapped the phone shut and headed back to his desk, sitting down and shuffling through a couple of pieces of paper before he looked up, sensing that Stephen's eyes were on him.

"What?" he asked genuinely perplexed.

The other man had a rather knowing grin on his face.

"Was that Claudia by any chance?"

Nick could sense the implication there and his answer was a little hurried, trying to brush the matter aside. To make it appear that it was of no consequence to him at all. Unfortunately it came out sounding a little guilty instead.

"As it happens, yes."

Stephen was unrelenting in his bluntness.

"You like her, don't you?"

He did, yes. It was something Nick was becoming increasingly aware of the more time he spent with her. It was hardly surprising really. She was beautiful, intelligent, caring and, most unexpectedly of all, there was just something about her that charmed him and made him feel a warmth that he hadn't felt in years. With Helen gone he had never even considered finding someone else – he thought that perhaps it was the lack of closure that bothered him so, the fact that he had never really known what had happened to her that had prevented him from moving on. Perhaps however he had simply never met the right person until now. He couldn't deny that it would be all too easy for him to fall in love with Claudia Brown.

But matters were more than a little complicated by circumstance and besides, he'd been out of this whole dating game for too long and he was admittedly a bit rusty about how it all worked. The last thing he really needed was Stephen winding him up about it and asking him questions he didn't yet have the answers to. He therefore settled for the most evasive reply he could muster without directly lying.

"She's very nice."

Stephen looked skywards, not accepting such a dismissive response for one moment. He knew Nick better than that.

"You know what I mean," he pressed.

Then he grinned a little wider.

"And she is very cute," he pointed out, "You'd make a sweet couple."

"As I said, she's very nice," Nick repeated again a little more firmly this time, making it quite clear that there were some things he liked to keep to himself.

Stephen smiled, not taking offence but admitting defeat for now as he turned back to his computer screen. Still, he couldn't resist one final parting shot.

"Well if it is of any interest to you," he said in a casual tone, "I'm pretty certain she thinks you're nice too."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Nick glance up at him, hesitating upon the brink of asking more about that but in the end backing out. He could understand in a way why Nick was so reluctant to make more of the matter, what with Helen's return complicating matters. Still, you only live once, Stephen always reminded himself. Nick was a good man and deserved to be happy and if Claudia was the one to make him so, then so be it. She seemed like a lovely woman after all and Stephen was in no doubt that what with the extent of her betrayal becoming clear, things were very much over between Nick and Helen.

How Stephen himself felt about that he wasn't quite sure yet. In fact, he preferred to take the easy route out of it and not think about it at all. Helen had a habit of confusing things in a way he was still uncomfortable with.

"Abby seems to think you're very nice," Nick said, not even looking up from his work as he threw that comment into the arena.

Touché.

"Well Abby's mistaken," Stephen said with cheery bluntness.

"Maybe it's not your nice personality she's after," Nick said with a chuckle.

Stephen shook his head.

"How about we call a ceasefire on discussion of our less than stellar personal lives and go and talk to Ryan about setting up surveillance instead?"

Nick smiled in agreement.

"What a good idea."

* * *

Claudia huffed irritably as the SUV bounced over yet another pot hole in the dirt track, jolting her spine sharply again. Why did these anomalies have a habit of appearing in the most awkward of places to get to? Epping Forest covered around six thousand acres of land and yet, with all that space to choose from, the anomaly had decided to spring up pretty much in the deepest part of it, far from any main road and accessible only by well worn dirt tracks, many full of pot holes and with treacherously steep embankments either side of them.

She guessed it must be sod's law firmly at work. It seemed to be almost her constant companion of late.

Still, she supposed things could be much worse. Yes, there had been deaths but surely that was to be expected in such an extreme and unusual circumstances. And, as she constantly tried to remind herself, the numbers could and probably would have been much higher if it wasn't for the selfless actions of all involved. She couldn't pretend that the few casualties they'd suffered didn't bother her but in a way she was glad that they did. She didn't want to end up like Lester, hard at heart and apparently only able to see commodities and problems, not the people behind them.

She knew she couldn't be far from the base camp. She had been there earlier in the day and even though it was dark now there were a few areas she recognised; the narrowing of the road as she continued and the small area of felled trees she'd just passed. If she was lucky, she'd be able to check in, get a quick status report, contact Lester and drive back home again to a hot bath and a glass of wine.

She smiled wanly to herself. Who was she fooling? She knew very well that once she got there she'd feel compelled to stay and keep an eye on the situation herself, not wanting to feel like she was neglecting her job. It looked like she was in for an all-nighter. Still, at least Abby would be there which was infinitely preferable to spending her time solely with the all too serious Special Forces men. She'd never really yet had an opportunity to get to know the other woman all that well so perhaps now would provide the time. After all, girls had to band together when surrounded by so much testosterone.

Utterly unexpectedly a figure suddenly ran out from the undergrowth and onto the path ahead of her, frantically waving its arms to flag her down. Claudia's foot instantly slammed on the brake, the tyres skidding over the loose dirt surface. After a few painfully long moments the figure ahead seemed to realise the problem and tried to back up from the oncoming vehicle, but in their haste to get away they stumbled backwards, falling heavily to the floor.

By the time the car stopped, the person was out of sight below the bumper.

Claudia sat there in shock for a moment, breathing heavily.

Then all of a sudden reality seemed to sink in and she hurriedly got out of the car, shaking fingers fumbling with the seatbelt and door handle, her heart thudding in shock. She didn't think she'd hit the person but she was worried all the same. Rounding the front of the vehicle she thankfully saw a rather stunned Abby sitting herself up just inches from the tyres, dusty but apparently unhurt.

"What the hell are you doing?" Claudia snapped as she bent down beside her, her relief coming out as anger.

Abby it seemed did not have the time for explanations.

She grabbed the front of Claudia's jacket hard and used it to pull herself to her feet, wincing as she did so, although whatever injury she had sustained she apparently wasn't going to dwell on it. It was only now the initial shock had worn off that Claudia realised how dishevelled and out of breath Abby was. As the other woman gripped tightly at her arms to steady herself she could see a definite trace of fear in her eyes.

"Oh my god," Claudia said softly, holding her firmly to help her stay upright, "Are you all right? What happened?"

"We don't have time," Abby replied in a rush, "We have to get out of here".

Claudia was about to ask why when from down the road in front of them she heard the all too familiar clatter of gunfire.

It was immediately followed by a piercing scream.

She looked back at Abby, sure that the other woman's fear was now reflected in her own face. Explanations could wait until later, for now they had more pressing concerns. Preservation was their first priority and she had to get Abby safely out of there and then call for back up.

"Get in," she ordered sharply.

Abby quickly hobbled round to the passenger side, using the vehicle for support as Claudia returned to the driver's seat, slamming the door behind her and hurriedly restarting the engine. She tried to put the vehicle into reverse but she did it too quickly and the gears crunched painfully, refusing to properly to engage.

More haste, less speed.

Or was it more speed, less haste? She never was very good at remembering those sort of sayings. Half the time she thought they were nonsense anyway.

"Claudia," Abby said quietly from next to her, "Hurry up."

Too quietly.

Claudia looked across at Abby and then followed her fixed gaze out of the windshield. Standing not twenty feet away was something that she didn't recognise. She had learned enough from her time dealing with the anomalies however to assume that it was definitely a predator. It was like some kind of horrible mixture between a wolf and a hyena with a long snout full of teeth and a powerful looking, fur covered body. Even from this distance she could tell it was certainly bigger than the car, over six feet tall and probably three times as long. It looked dangerously powerful.

And it was looking straight at them.

By the time she had finished gawping, it was already moving in for a closer inspection.

"Claudia!" Abby shouted in concern, seeing the other woman near frozen with shock, "Go!"

She didn't need telling again.

Slamming the car into gear, thanking anyone up there that it engaged the second time of asking, she floored the accelerator, reversing as fast as the vehicle would allow.

The animal began to accelerate too, going from an intrigued trot to a hunting canter.

Claudia yanked the handbrake up hard, turning the vehicle to face the other way. It wasn't perfect – the road was slippery and she was out of practice – and she ended up a little too much left, scraping the car noisily along a tree, knocking one of the wing mirrors off as she got it back facing the right direction and sped off.

She caught Abby looking at her out of the corner of her eye, apparently surprised.

"I did a rally weekend for my twenty-first," she explained.

Abby almost smiled despite the situation.

"Were you any good?"

"Not bad."

The conversation came to an abrupt halt as the car was battered from behind, the rear wheels momentarily leaving the road, causing both occupants to cry out in surprise. In the darkness around them Claudia couldn't get a good look at it but she could feel the impact of creature running so close by, treating them like prey, hunting them down.

She eased a little more out of the accelerator, going now even faster than she really should dare. The SUV was okay as a vehicle but it wasn't really a true off roader and it certainly wasn't suited to what she was asking it to do. They were being thrown around like rag dolls inside it even with seatbelts on and Claudia was barely keeping a decent hold on the steering wheel, the car precariously close to losing its grip on the road.

"We need to go faster!" Abby said redundantly, turning slightly in her seat to watch as the animal ran up alongside them with apparent ease.

Any faster though and they'd be off the treacherous road in moments.

Maybe, Claudia thought, just maybe they'd be lucky. Surely a creature with that amount of bulk would tire very quickly at these speeds and then they'd be free to escape. Which probably explained why it seemed so intent upon stopping them, slamming its weight fiercely into the side of the vehicle this time.

The car lurched to one side and she just about held it, catching the back wheels before they went into a skid. The second impact almost pushed them into a tree but she steered away just in time. By the third their luck had run out.

The sheer force of the blow pushed the car far enough side ways that wheels left the road, heading onto the steep incline of the embankment and dragging the rest of the car with them. Claudia tried her best to keep it going as they hurtled down the hill, knowing that it would be suicidal to stop with the animal still so close by. But the floor was too littered and she didn't have a hope of seeing the rock or log or whatever it was that she soon hit.

She knew the car had flipped, could see forest floor flying round the side widows as they rolled, but she was unconscious well before they came to a stop at the bottom.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three**

Nick had very little love for the glass and metallic structure that housed the Home Office department he was currently liaising with. It was cold and clinical, uncaring and uninviting. He knew he shouldn't let it get to him, but something about this environment always put him on edge and making him defensive and short tempered. It always gave him the impression that the people in expensive suits, like Lester, who barely stepped foot outside this building, had no real clue as to what was going on out there and were, quite frankly, not interested in finding out beyond making sure that it caused them no trouble.

And even Claudia wasn't here right now to humanize things somewhat.

Still, at least Captain Ryan didn't exactly look at home here either. Although the Special Forces team had a base of operations elsewhere, it seemed that Lester preferred them, whenever possible, to use the briefing room and communications facilities in the lower levels of this building. He seemed to like having them under his watchful gaze, much to Ryan's apparent annoyance even if his professionalism prevented him from actually saying anything.

When Nick had explained what he wanted done, Ryan had looked at him like he was talking nonsense. Even Nick had to admit that it was a hell of a lot of work for potentially no gain, but he and Stephen had taken the time to lay out the possible benefits and Ryan had found it hard to disagree with the fact that being able to predict where anomalies would appear would be a huge tactical advantage.

As far as possible, Ryan had wanted to use existing CCTV systems to monitor the eight by two square mile area where Nick believed the next anomaly was likely to appear. Setting up surveillance of their own would take time and could arouse suspicion amongst the general populous and Lester would want to avoid that at all costs. So the communications specialists had spent the last hour tapping into existing feeds and were now plotting them on a map, finding the black spots so that Ryan could send men out to set up the few extra cameras they would require. Even then they couldn't possibly cover every square inch of land and they would have to send small teams of men out to covertly patrol the areas in question.

"How long do you think we're going to have to keep this up for?" Ryan asked, frowning at the map in front of him, clearly still not liking the size of the area they were dealing with.

"Well," Stephen said, "The readings seem to indicate that the anomaly in Epping Forest will likely be gone by morning and then, if there's going to be another one..."

He looked at Nick for confirmation.

"Five days? A week at most?"

Nick nodded in agreement.

Ryan sighed heavily. Clearly that wasn't what he wanted to hear. Nick couldn't blame him really. Keeping a twenty four hour watch on the site of the next possible anomaly was a time consuming and complicated process with no guarantee of success.

"And you can't narrow the area down anymore than that?" Ryan asked, prodding at the map.

"No," Nick said, suspecting that was the answer Ryan had expected and that his question was more wishful thinking than anything else, "If we cut it down anymore than this then we risk excluding an area it could appear in. If we want to get some accurate data to predict from then we can't miss this next anomaly. Who knows when we'll get another chance like this?"

"If there's a next anomaly," Ryan pointed out.

"Yeah, 'if'," Nick conceded. He didn't apologise for the vagaries of his theory. Ryan was bright enough to know the score even if he didn't like it.

The next twenty minutes or so continued to be an exercise in negotiation and compromise. Ryan was right, they couldn't reasonably watch every single square inch of land in Nick's target area and they discussed – sometimes heatedly – what would be the easiest and most prudent places to watch. Stephen was all for virtually ignoring any heavily populated area – after all if the anomaly appeared in a residential area then someone was bound to report it – and so suggested concentrating their efforts on the quieter areas where things could more easily go undetected. Ryan on the other hand did not like the idea of happily letting a member of the public wander across an anomaly if there was a chance of keeping it under wraps instead. Whether that was an issue of security or public safety he wouldn't discuss. Nick suspected it was a bit of both.

Their only interruptions came in the guise of one of the sergeants who Ryan had instructed to keep him updated on the set up of the surveillance operations. The sergeant's reports became so commonplace that by the seventh or eighth time Ryan barely acknowledged his arrival, choosing instead to continue trying to explain to Nick why they couldn't just put up meters to detect magnetic field fluctuations in the areas where they were unable to place cameras, saying that it would take too long to set up and would arouse too many suspicions. The sergeant however seemed unable to wait, standing patiently for just a moment before walking right in between Ryan and Nick, bringing their discussion to an abrupt halt.

"Sorry, sir," the man said, although his apology was quite perfunctory, "But we might have a problem. Delta team have missed their hourly check in."

Stephen frowned, a hint of concern on his face, "Wasn't that the team out in Epping Forest with Abby?"

The sergeant nodded. "When they were overdue we tried to contact them but we got no response."

"Interference maybe," Stephen suggested, looking for the reasonable explanation rather than the dramatic, "The anomaly somehow affecting the transmission?"

Ryan shook his head, "No, we've tested all the equipment thoroughly. There's no reason why it shouldn't work."

Without further comment he headed off into the adjoining communications suite, Nick and Stephen following. Ryan marched straight over to the appropriate desk, the man in charge of it making room for the captain as he picked up a spare headset.

"Delta team, this is Captain Ryan, please respond."

Hissing static was his only reply. Nick suspect that Ryan hadn't truly expected them to suddenly respond just because he was the one asking, he just always liked to check things for himself.

"Delta team," he asked again, "Please be advised you have missed your check in mark. Report."

Still nothing.

Ryan put the headset down and stepped back, a deep frown on his face.

"Well?" Stephen prompted a little irritably when the captain said nothing more.

Ryan glanced at them, trying and not succeeding to hide a grim look.

"We'd better get another team out there."

* * *

Before her involvement in this project, Claudia had never been knocked unconscious. This was now her second time and it seemed that it didn't get any better. Although, she realised as she opened her eyes and saw the cracked LCD clock in front of her, at least this time she hadn't gone temporarily blind.

Thank heavens for small mercies.

It took a few moments for her swimming brain to orientate itself but eventually she realised that the SUV had come to a stop on its roof and she was being held in her seat by the seatbelt which was more than a little uncomfortable. She chose to ignore the nausea jolting through her stomach, deciding that it was the least of her worries.

The glass in the side window was shattered and was probably the cause of the still slowly bleeding cut on the side of her head, visible in the distorted reflection of the cracked rear view mirror. She looked a little longer, pushing aside hair sticky with blood, squinting in the dim light. It didn't seem that bad. Only superficial but she'd probably need stitches though.

A more powerful surge of nausea hit her when she moved and she slumped back in the seat, closing her eyes whilst it passed, repeating over and over in her mind that she was not going to be sick. All she could hear was her own breathing and the rhythmic creaking of the battered car. The world outside was deathly still.

In the darkness, seatbelt digging painful into her chest and abdomen, she tried to take her mind off the churning of her stomach by recalling what had happened, working backwards in her head until she remembered how this had all begun.

Her eyes opened with a start.

"Abby?" she said, her voice coming out hoarse and pained, barely louder than a whisper.

She swallowed as well as she could, ignoring the taste of blood before trying again, louder this time.

"Abby?"

No response.

The headlights must have smashed on the way down and her only illumination came from the sickly green glow of the dashboard. It took her a moment to co-ordinate her fumbling fingers well enough to reach across to the other woman. She followed the line of Abby's arm up, across her shoulder and onto her neck, prodding for a pulse.

For a moment she could feel nothing and she almost panicked before forcing herself to calm down and rethink. Maybe she just wasn't in the right place. She walked her fingers a little further up Abby's neck, pressing firmly into the crease between her throat and her jaw line.

There. A steady throbbing under her fingertips.

A sudden groan emanating from the other woman confirmed that she was indeed alive and made Claudia start slightly in the silence.

"Just...Just stay there okay," she said after taking a moment to calm herself, realising only after she spoke just how stupid that sounded, "I'll get you out."

Part of her questioned the wisdom of that. Whatever had attacked them may be still out there and Abby could be badly hurt and moving her may only make things worse. But she liked even less the idea of staying in the crashed vehicle. It might not be safe. If they'd ruptured the fuel line there was a chance of explosion. Besides, they couldn't just sit here, wait and hope someone found them. How long had they been here anyway? Hours could have passed by now. It was safe to assume that the Special Forces unit had been unable to secure the creature. If she considered the worst case scenario that the unit had been entirely wiped out and no one had reported the incident, just how long exactly would it be before they missed their next call in and Ryan sent help? And how long would it take the help to get here? No, they had to do something themselves.

Claudia braced herself as best she could, feet either side of the pedals, one hand on the flat of the steering wheel before she dared undo the seatbelt. It wasn't quite enough though and she still slumped forward with a painful jolt, the horn blaring for a moment as she landed on it.

She sat there in alarmed silence, wondering if the creature had heard that.

She reasoned that if it had then staying here any longer than necessary was a bad idea.

Turning herself into a sitting position, her still slightly muddled brain took a few goes before it managed to figure out how to work the upside down door handle. The door wouldn't budge. She tried pushing at it with her shoulder but even with halfway decent leverage and it simply wouldn't move.

She supposed she could crawl out of the window, but the jagged glass around its edge would cut her to bits, not exactly a good option.

In frustration and rising panic she rattled the door a few times but still nothing happened.

Forcing herself to be calm again, she sat back taking a few deep breaths and giving herself a chance to think.

Which was when she noticed something.

Somehow, the central locking had activated on the way down. Maybe she'd knocked it. Maybe the electronics had gone haywire. Either way the small lever was definitely in the locked position. Reaching forward, putting the slight shake in her fingers down to shock rather than anything more serious, she tried to push the lever down but it was bent out of shape and wouldn't move.

Now what?

She glanced around, hoping for inspiration.

The dashboard. It was lit.

The electronics were still working.

She reached across and twisted and pulled the keys out of the ignition, plunging herself into further darkness, only the moonlight filtering through the trees providing any illumination at all now. She could neither see nor remember which button on the key fob was the correct one and so she tried them all, pressing them firmly one by one.

Nothing.

Only one choice left then. She shifted herself closer to the door, carefully brushing aside some of the glass so she had a place to rest her hand. Her other arm she snaked out of the window, her jacket catching in the jagged glass edge more than once before her searching fingers reached the lock. Putting the keys in, she turned them and heard the wonderful sound of the bolts releasing.

She'd added a few extra scratches to her arm but it was more than worth it to be able to get out of there.

With the car roof crumpled slightly, the top of the door scrapped along the ground and she had to push it hard to open it fully. She crawled out in a most undignified manner, allowing herself just a moment to sit still and get her bearings in a world that was now thankfully the right way up. It really was cold out here now, she realised, watching the vapour from her breath glide away into the darkness.

Not daring to wait any longer than was necessary for the worst of the nausea to pass once more, she pushed herself to her feet, thankful that apart from the cut on her head she was little more than battered and bruised. High heel boots she realised in hindsight had been a mistake that day. Still, it could have been worse. She could have been wearing a skirt.

Walking on unsteady feet and uneven ground, she went as quickly as she could round to Abby's side of the car.

Pulling open that door too she knelt down, shaking Abby's shoulder as firmly as she dared. If Abby was too badly hurt to move then she didn't know what she was going to do.

"Abby?" she asked again, unable to hide the urgency in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm awake," the other woman muttered, still clearly a bit groggy but forcing herself to open her eyes anyway.

She frowned as she looked around her.

"Am I upside down or are you?"

"You are," Claudia said with a slight smile, glad to see her awake and lucid, "And we have to get you out of there. Anything hurt?"

"Everything," Abby grumbled.

"Okay, anything badly hurt?"

"I don't think so."

She wiggled experimentally in her seat, grimacing a bit as she did so.

"Abby?" Claudia questioned.

The other woman shook her head, "Just help me out of here, all right?"

It took a bit of careful manoeuvring but with Claudia's help eventually Abby managed to get herself free without falling on her head, and then slid out of the car. Like Claudia she seemed to have sustained a few cuts from the broken glass but that was the least of her worries. More importantly she was limping quite badly but Claudia had a hazy recollection of her falling before she even got in the vehicle. It seemed that perhaps Abby had got away from the actual crash even more lightly than she had.

Or perhaps not.

Abby got herself over to a nearby log and sat on it, gingerly leaning forward to check her ankle but stopping abruptly as she winced in pain, her breath suddenly ripped from her. Claudia knelt down in front of her, holding Abby's arm reassuringly until the colour began to return to her suddenly deathly pale cheeks.

"Don't worry," Claudia soothed, "It's probably only a cracked rib. Seatbelts can do that in car accidents."

"'Only a cracked rib'?" Abby queried, looking sceptical. Cracking your rib wasn't something she could brush aside quite so easily.

"Well, okay relatively speaking" Claudia pointed out, "It could have been much worse."

Abby glanced around her to the battered wreckage of the vehicle, complete with claw marks down the side, and couldn't help but agree.

Claudia meanwhile picked up where Abby left off, lifting up the edge of her trousers, pushing down her socks and checking her ankle. There were some signs of bruising and it was a little puffy but didn't seem to be all that bad.

"I think it's just a sprain."

Abby smiled slightly, gallows humour, "Oh so you're a doctor as well as a rally driver now?"

Claudia smiled a little too, "Only a basic first aid course I'm afraid. Pity Nick isn't here. He's seen ER and everything."

Abby laughed for just a short moment before it made her grimace and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, waiting for the sharp pain to subsided.

"Look, I don't think you should move," Claudia said with clear concern.

"We can't stay here," Abby pointed out, "No one knows where we are."

"When the team doesn't report in they'll send another unit out to check on them," Claudia reasoned, "They'll find us."

"Before something else does?"

There was silence for a moment, Claudia not having an answer for that. She was just trying to muster up something encouraging and sensible when Abby frowned.

"Do you hear that?"

Claudia frowned too, looking around. She could hear something, a small tinkling noise that she was barely able to make out. It sounded like a mobile phone.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part Four**

For the entire drive down there Stephen had been trying to look on the positive side. After all, there were dozens of possible reasons why they hadn't replied to the radio call, none of which had anything necessarily to do with something bad having happened to them. Worrying when there might be no need was pointless.

So what if Claudia hadn't answered her phone even though Nick had constantly been trying to call her since they'd left the office? Maybe her battery was flat. Maybe she had the music up too loud and hadn't heard it. Maybe, in the middle of the woods, there was just appalling reception.

No news was not necessarily bad news, he reminded himself.

Nick didn't seem so confident. He closed his phone again, Claudia having failed to answer for what must be at least the twentieth time in as many minutes. Stephen knew the drill by now; Nick would sit there in silence, looking out of the window, expression grim. Any attempts at conversation would be brushed aside with short, terse answers. Any attempts at reassurance would be met by sharp, frustrated replies. Nick didn't want to be reassured nor told that everything was going to be fine. He just wanted to get there and do something. He certainly didn't want to sit in the car feeling helpless.

And so, moments later, he would try to call her again, even though he must have realised by now that chances were she wouldn't answer. But it was better than doing nothing. It was better than not trying at all.

Stephen could sympathise with that in a way. The action of driving as fast as possible was keeping him focused as he followed Ryan's vehicle down unfamiliar roads, watching the miles tick by, eating up the distance between him and friends who were potentially in trouble. When he did allow his mind to wander, straying from the task at hand just for a moment, all he could think of was that he had left Abby on a stupid argument. One that he might now never have the opportunity to make up for.

He pushed that thought firmly aside, refusing to give in to worry. He was no good to anyone if he wasn't focussed, professional and calm.

He glanced across at his friend, hearing Nick sigh heavily as he closed the phone yet again.

"She's not picking up," he admitted. Stephen already knew that of course but there was a worrying finality to the way Nick had said it.

"Keep trying," he ordered.

He wouldn't even hear the suggestion of giving up on them so soon.

Nick looked at him for a long moment and then nodded, understanding the other man's reasoning and trying the phone yet again.

* * *

Connor rubbed tired eyes, wincing slightly as the action only made them more sore. Plants weren't really his thing to be honest and his knowledge of ancient insects was patchy at best. But since they were the only things he had to base his research on he'd had to make do, even if it had made the process of identifying the time period take longer than it normally would.

His original hunch had been right however. The samples he'd collected did seem to suggest the Eocene. His guess was that it was quite late in the era, perhaps somewhere around thirty five million years ago, a time when the supercontinent of Laurasia had completely broken apart into Europe, Greenland and North America and the globe was cooling down once more. Through much of the Eocene, the Earth had seen a phase of global warming that would make today's environmental scientists' eyes pop out. Even the Polar Regions would have been warmer than England was in the present day and that had led to an Earth that for many millions of years was almost entirely covered in forest.

It was that very fact actually which had allowed him to guess with such certainty at the specific part of the era they were looking at. The area on the other side of the anomaly was a sparse and barren scrub with little or no sign of the modern mammals that should populate the era. So he could only surmise that it must be towards the end of the Eocene, as the period of cooling took its toll, drying out the once lush landscape and killing off the forests. Combine that with the positive identification he'd managed of some early forms of grass that would have just started to grow during that time, and his dating of the period in question could be remarkably accurate. Well, to within ten million years or so anyway. Which in the context of the Earth's history was the proverbial blink of an eye.

Pleased with his work, he picked up his phone and called Cutter, wanting to relate his findings.

The satisfied grin on his face faltered when the professor answered the phone in a sharp and irritable manner.

"What?"

Connor raised his eyebrows, a little taken aback but continued on regardless. He assumed that Cutter was just having a bad time with his research and that things weren't going quite as well as he hoped. He himself could get a bit tetchy when a theory wasn't coming together how he wanted it too and so he sympathised with the professor's mood.

"Things are going well then," he commented with a hint of sarcasm before continuing, "Look, I managed to date the area beyond the anomaly. It seems I was right, it's definitely the Eocene. Late Eocene actually since I-"

"That's great, Connor," Cutter replied tersely, "Pleased for you. Now I've got to go."

"Oh well that's sodding charming!" Connor bit back, feeling more than a tad put out by Cutter's dismissive attitude, "Do you have any idea how long I've-"

"Connor, shut up!" Nick snapped sharply, a tone of voice he'd never used with him even when he had briefly dismissed Connor from the team. From that alone Connor knew there was something wrong even before Cutter continued.

"We've lost contact with the team at the anomaly and I need to use the bloody phone, okay?"

Connor frowned, confused, not really taking that in.

"What do you mean, 'lost contact'?"

"They missed their call in and we can't raise them on the radio," Nick said with an exasperated sigh.

"What happened to them?"

"We'll find out when we get there."

"But...but Abby was there," Connor said worriedly, knowing he was stating the obvious but unable to help it.

"Yes and probably Claudia too as well as half a dozen of Ryan's men," Nick replied hurriedly, "Look, we're just pulling up to the site, I have to go."

"What?" Connor asked, completely thrown by what he was hearing, "No! Hang on a minute-"

Too late, the line went dead.

He sat there for a long moment, feeling shocked and a little rejected. Their friends were potentially in trouble and no one had even thought of calling him to let him know?

That was really nice of them. What, didn't they think he'd care or something? Did they think he was useless in situations like this? Did they think that he'd end up being a burden more than a help and that they'd be better off working without him?

He stood, hurriedly shoving his books and laptop back into his bag. They may not want him out there, might not think they actually needed him, but he was going regardless. He'd lost a friend recently and as far as he was concerned that was one too many. He wasn't going to sit idly by and hope he didn't lose another

* * *

Nick and Stephen both hesitantly surveyed the scene through the windshield for a long, silent moment. At first glance it was hard to tell that anything was wrong. The area around seemed quiet and undisturbed whilst the shimmering anomaly drew the eye away from any minor details that might have suggested something was amiss. The more they looked however, the more they noticed things.

Like the spent gun cartridges on the floor and the small stove which they'd been using to make tea lying abandoned on its side. The communications tent was flapping awkwardly in the breeze where some of the pegs had been torn from the ground. The flood lights were still standing but some were pointing in odd directions that no sensible human would have placed them in.

And then there were the footprints. To Nick they were a scattered mess amongst the mud, grass and leaves that meant very little. He guessed however that a better qualified man like Stephen could see more in them. Even Nick's limited ability told him that they suggested that something dramatic had happened here. That people had been running and that something large with hooves feet had been the catalyst.

Ryan and his men were already out of their vehicles, their detached professionalism overriding any shock at the scene or concern for the fate of their colleagues. They were here to do a job and they could only do it properly if they kept their heads.

Nick and Stephen shared a grim look before getting out of their vehicle too, neither wishing to voice his own dour thoughts.

Ryan was organising his men, sending them off in different directions to do a quick sweep of the immediate area, telling them to be on their guard for a potentially dangerous creature that could still be nearby.

"What happened?" Nick asked as they joined him, knowing deep down that Ryan had no more of an idea than he had but somehow still needing to ask. Wanting to believe that someone could offer him a rational explanation that would give him some hope that his friends were okay.

"Give me a minute, all right?" the captain answered distractedly, pointing two soldiers in the direction he wanted them to search and then pressing on his ear piece, listening to some information coming in from base.

Nick couldn't do nothing though.

"Any sign of Abby and Claudia?" he pressed, "Do you know what happened to them?"

"No, we don't, we've only just got here," Ryan replied, a little more tensely this time, walking to the tent and glancing quickly inside. As he suspected it was deserted.

Nick was still right on his heels.

"Well what about the thing that came through the anomaly? Any sign of it?"

"If you want to try and find some footprints, be my guest," the captain suggested, patience wearing thin.

"What about the vehicles over there? Are any of those Claudia's?" Nick asked nodding towards the parked vehicles, completely oblivious to Ryan's mood as his mind worked through all the pertinent questions, "Do we know what she was driving?"

"Cutter!" Ryan finally snapped in frustration, angry just for a moment before he relented and took a deep breath, showing a bit of understanding, "Look, I know you're concerned all right, but we're trying to do our job and you've got to give us a chance."

Nick nodded, held his hand up in apology and turned away, understanding what Ryan was saying. They needed to work through this professionally and systematically. They couldn't run off like a bunch of headless chickens. They had to know the situation they were dealing with if they wished to be most effective. Besides, Ryan's men were out here too. Seven people that he was responsible for, colleagues and friends, were also missing. Nick was sure that he was worried too but he apparently wasn't going to let it get in the way of his job. There was something almost reassuring about the captain's professionalism even if was a little cold.

Stephen walked over to stand next to Nick, placing a hand momentarily on his shoulder, looking at his friend with concern.

"Are you okay?"

"I don't think it's me you should be worried about," he replied grimly, shaking his head.

Stephen looked as if he was about to say more, to offer yet more hollow reassurances, when he was cut off by a shout from one of the Special Forces men.

"Sir! Over here! Man down!"

Ryan ran over there without hesitation, Nick and Stephen mere paces behind. The soldier was lying face down in the bushes, half hidden from sight. It was unclear on first glance as to whether he was injured or dead.

"Get the medic," Ryan ordered.

Much to their surprise there was a groan from what they had assumed was, at best, the unconscious soldier. Stephen and Ryan knelt down and between them carefully rolled him over as Nick stood back and let them work. Ryan's tone was reassuringly business like, as though he was trying make his soldier believe that this happened all the time and that he was utterly certain of a positive outcome.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. There's a medic on the way."

Stephen lent over the soldier, instructing Ryan to angle his torch so he could see properly without blinding the man. Stephen was no doctor and his training stretched to basic field medicine at best, but he knew enough to make an educated guess. The man seemed to have taken quite a bash to the head. His eyes were open but they were glazed and unfocussed and he looked like he had a pretty intense concussion. He probably wouldn't be of much help to them and his racing pulse and cold skin indicated the onset of shock which they certainly didn't want to exacerbate. But they still had to try and get some information from him at least. Eight people were still missing and their lives could depend on them being found quickly.

"Do you remember what happened?" he asked, his voice calm and reassuring, nothing demanding in his question. He didn't want to stress the guy any more than necessary.

"I think that..." the man began in a hoarse voice before a frown that seemed to be part pain and part confusion settled on his face, "There was something..."

His words were vague, slurred and a bit muddled, clearly a result of his head injury.

"Don't push yourself, okay?" Ryan instructed, "Just tell us anything you can remember."

The man swallowed and was quiet for a moment. Stephen almost feared the worst before he suddenly spoke again.

"Something...it came through...it wouldn't stop."

Stephen glanced around them. The bullet cases on the ground seemed to be clear evidence that they had tried to stop it and from what this guy was saying they had met with no success. That just compounded their problems – not only were numerous people missing but there was also a large and potentially dangerous creature on the loose.

"Anything else?" he asked gently. Everything he'd told them so far they could have worked out for themselves. They needed more. Some specifics they could use as a basis to work from. Anything that might give them a clue as to what they were dealing with or where the others had gone. "Did it look like a predator?"

"I don't know...It had teeth..."

Up until then, Nick had remained remarkably quiet but in his current agitated state Stephen knew that that couldn't last and he certainly wasn't surprised when the professor crouched down beside the man too, leaning over him.

"What happened to Abby and Claudia?" Nick asked as his currently fragile patience worn thin, his question firm and demanding an answer with none of the gentle 'it doesn't really matter' manner that Stephen had had, "Did you see them?"

"Cutter..." Ryan warned quietly, not liking to hear his injured man being interrogated. Stephen agreed. He could totally understand Nick's concern but this wasn't the way to go about getting the intel they needed. No matter how important his answers were, they couldn't pressurise a man who by all rights should probably still be unconscious.

"We have to know where they went," Nick reasoned sharply, turning on the captain. He wasn't really angry at Ryan but he was taking it out on him anyway. Nick knew he was being harsh and cold but he didn't particular care. There were important things at stake here. People could die.

"Abby..." the man said softly, struggling hard to remember, "She ran...we told her to run...She disappeared...I don't know..."

He shook his head, clearly distressed at both his inability to be more useful and from the shock of the attack he was recalling.

"And Claudia?" Nick pressed as though he was oblivious to the man's state, his concerns firmly elsewhere.

The man shook his head again, frowning with confusion, "She wasn't here."

That wasn't the news any of them had expected.

"What do you mean, 'she wasn't here'?" Nick asked, almost angry, as though it was the injured man's fault, "Don't be stupid, she had to be. She can't have just disappeared. Look, are you sure? Are you sure you didn't see her? She was driving down here. She should have been here over an hour ago."

Stephen saw a panic buried deep in his friend's face that he had only seen once before under horribly similar circumstances.

The injured man shook his head again, confused by so many questions that he didn't know the answers to, "I don't know...I'm sorry...I don't remember..."

"Well you bloody well need to remember!"

Ryan unceremoniously hauled Nick to his feet pushing him away from his colleague.

"That is enough," he ordered in angry tones.

Stephen was the peace maker, stepping up and taking Nick's shoulders, pulling his friend away as the medic finally arrived. Stephen looked almost apologetically at Ryan and the captain nodded in understanding although his glare was a firm instruction to get Nick out of his sight. Stephen decided to do just that. They didn't need to be arguing amongst themselves.

He led his friend back to the car, the other man shaking him off once they got there. Nick leant back against the vehicle, wiping his hands over his face, looking weary.

"Is he going to be okay?" he asked, clearly feeling some sense of remorse for his treatment of the injured man.

"Should be."

"Those footprints on the floor, they were hoofed right?" Nick asked, trying to push his concerns aside in favour of deducing as much as they could about the situation.

"Yeah," Stephen confirmed, "What are you thinking, one of the mesonychia?"

Nick nodded, "It would explain the size and the aggression. It fits with the era too if it is the Eocene. I should have checked that with Connor."

Yes, Connor. He shouldn't have snapped at the kid like that, it hadn't been fair. He was just as concerned as the rest of them and he'd only wanted to know what was going on. Nick would need to apologise to him later.

There was a long moment of silence before he could no longer ignore the thoughts in his head.

"She can't have just disappeared," he repeated softly in bewilderment, clearly at a loss to understand the situation.

"You don't know anything's happened to her," Stephen reasoned, "Maybe she's stopped at a petrol station or something and hasn't taken her phone with her."

"No, she's always got that phone on her," Nick replied pessimistically.

"Then maybe she's just somewhere with no reception."

"And maybe she's lying injured somewhere," Nick retorted in frustration, fed up of being told that all was well when his gut was telling him that it wasn't and already more than sick of feeling helpless, "Maybe she ran into whatever came through the anomaly. She could be dead for all we know."

"She's not dead," Stephen said tightly.

"You don't know that."

"And you don't know that she is," the younger man snapped back, firmly holding his temper in check against the urge to lose it, "And you thinking like that isn't going to help her. Nor Abby. Or had you forgotten about her?"

The guilty look on Nick's face convinced him that, just for a moment at least, he had.

"No...No of course not," Nick lied quietly, clearly too ashamed of the truth to admit it. Stephen felt it was pointless in the circumstances to force a confession from him though. He knew full well that Nick wanted Abby back safely too but his attachment to Claudia was much deeper and it was hardly surprising that she was the foremost thing on his mind.

"Abby's tough and smart," Nick reasoned, sounding like he was trying to convince himself as much as Stephen, "She'll be out there hiding up somewhere. She'll be okay."

"And you're saying Claudia's not smart or tough?" Stephen asked, calmer once more, eyebrow slightly raised.

Nick smiled just a little, "I wouldn't dare."

Then he shook his head, sighing heavily, his true concerns coming to the forefront.

"It's just...you saw how she was with the pterosaur. It's not her fault, she's just not as experienced as the rest us of are with dealing with animals. She doesn't know enough about their behaviour and when you're talking about creatures like this, that could get you killed."

"Connor's not exactly experienced either," Stephen pointed out, "And he's still alive."

"By the skin of his teeth, yeah."

The two of them shared a smile.

"Look, we know she left the office and was heading here," Nick continued, "We know she didn't turn up and we certainly didn't pass her on the way so you tell me, Stephen, where is she? People can't just disappear like that."

But sometimes in Nick's experience they did and he was achingly afraid of it happening again.

"Call her," Stephen instructed, unable to answer his question, "Call her again. There's no harm in trying, right?"

While Nick did just that Stephen went to find Ryan, to ask what he could do. For Nick's sake at least they had to find Claudia. His friend had been through enough for one lifetime.

For his own sake he had to find Abby. And the first thing he was going to do when he did was to apologise for that stupid argument.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part Five**

The phone was ringing for around the tenth time by the time Claudia actually found it. A quick search of the car had established that it wasn't in there and Abby had said she thought the noise was coming from somewhere on the embankment they had rolled down. The phone had been sitting in the cradle on the dash and it could have easily fallen through the broken windows before they'd come to a stop.

She'd scrambled up the embankment a short way, listening carefully for it to ring again. She'd had a feeling that it would – someone was obviously trying to find out where she was. She didn't know how long it had been since they'd been attacked but the Special Forces boys were efficient. Ryan no doubt had them on hourly check ins and she assumed that by now someone would have realised that things were amiss and would be out looking for them.

Just as she'd expected, the phone had rung yet again and she'd tried her best to follow the sound. It had taken her a while, what with the limited light and thick covering of leaves, nettles and ferns on the floor. She'd stung and scratched herself a dozen times but eventually her searching fingers found something cool and metallic and gratefully wrapped themselves around the buzzing phone.

It didn't appear to be in very good condition: bent slightly with the LCD screens on both the inside and out cracked and distorted, so much so that she couldn't see who was calling. Still, it was ringing which was a bonus.

"Hello?" she asked hopefully, not daring to expect a reply. Chances were that the innards were squashed too and there was no guarantee it could do anything but ring.

"Claudia!"

The relieved voice belonged to Nick of that she was sure. To be honest she was pretty relieved to hear him too.

"...God...worried. Where...you? ...hurt?"

She glanced at the screen but it was too distorted for her to see if it was simply appalling reception or the fact that the phone really was broken.

"Nick?" she asked, not knowing for certain if he could hear her any better than she could him, "Look, we're okay. Abby's with me. We're a few miles down the road at the bottom of the embankment. Something came through the anomaly. It pushed us down here."

She sighed. There was so much more she needed to ask. Where was he? Was he at the camp? Were there many injured? Had they found and contained the creature? But more questions would only waste precious time. For now at least she had to prioritise getting Abby safely back so she could get treated for her broken rib. Someone else could worry about the rest. Cut off from the others like this there was little else she could do.

"Did you get that?" she asked when there was nothing but hissing static from the phone for a few moments. Nick's voice returned suddenly, so loud in her ear that it almost made her jump.

"Can't...you properly," his broken voice said and she assumed the missing word was 'hear', "...stay put...find...Be careful."

The line went dead although whether he had hung up or the phone had simply given up the ghost she couldn't be sure. She pocketed it anyway just in case it was still working.

It was all very well him saying 'stay put' but he had no idea where they were. There was simply no guarantee that he'd heard her explanation at all. At least she knew the rough direction to head in to get back to camp and the idea of staying here with the creature still potentially close by made her nervous. They'd be far safer back with the men with the guns and since Abby insisted that she was well enough to walk then they should probably do just that. Besides, they'd be picked up much more quickly if they could meet their rescuers half way.

"You got it then," Abby noted as Claudia made her way back down the embankment to rejoin her.

"Yes, although I think it's broken. I don't know how much they heard."

"Well at least we know someone's looking for us," Abby said brightly, "Other than the big, nasty monster that is."

"Do you know what it was?" Claudia asked curiously. It was a point she'd brushed aside up until now but maybe the other woman knew something about the creature and, more importantly, how likely it was to continue to hunt them.

Abby shook her head, "Sorry. That's more Connor's field than mine. I mean, it's a predator obviously – you don't have those teeth and claws if you're only hunting salads."

"No," Claudia agreed, with a slight smile. She paused for a moment, trying to remember more from the time leading up to the attack. She had only caught fleeting glimpses of the animal in question but one thing had struck her.

"It looked like some kind of giant wolf," she said, thoughtfully.

"Yeah, but the body was all wrong," Abby pondered, "It was more like a hyena. There's nothing like that alive today so I'd guess it's from an extinct family. I can't be more specific. Sorry."

"It doesn't matter," Claudia reassured her, untruthfully, "Whatever it is, you're right, I don't think we should stay here. We should try to get back to the camp, meet up with the others."

"Okay," Abby agreed, "I never was one for the whole 'damsel in distress' thing anyway."

Claudia went to her side, helping her to her feet, watching with a frown as Abby's pronounced limp became obvious once more. Claudia glanced at the long embankment; it was very steep and the ground was littered and uneven. You'd need a firm footing to get up there safely.

"Yeah," Abby agreed, catching Claudia's eyes, "I don't think I'm going to make that either."

"Then we'll just follow it from down here," Claudia reasoned simply, "This embankment ran all the way along the road, right? So it should lead us straight back to the camp."

In truth she didn't really know for certain but neither did she see an alternative. She herself could probably make it up the slope but that would mean leaving Abby behind and coming back with help. That was something that she just couldn't do. She would rather take the slow route and know the other woman was safe than take the fast one but have to abandon her and hope for the best. They stood a better chance if they stayed together. Besides, so late on such a dark night she really didn't fancy wandering through the woods on her own.

* * *

Connor stopped the Mini with a skid, throwing up clouds of loose dirt, thankful that he'd come to a halt just short of bumping its nose against a tree. His life wouldn't be worth living if he damaged her car. He'd only borrowed it from Abby for the evening, reasoning that she didn't need it to sit in the woods and saying that he didn't really fancy catching the bus back from the library so late at night. She'd sighed wearily but had eventually relented, handing over the keys and demanding that he pick her up the next morning and telling him that he'd better bring breakfast with him.

He smiled briefly at the memory before the reality of the circumstances hit him again and his face fell into a frown.

Getting out of the car, he looked around at the hub of activity, feeling lost. He all but walked straight into Ryan as he turned to watch two men with medical packs hurrying past, wondering who was hurt and how badly.

He opened his mouth to talk but Ryan beat him to it, looking mildly put out by the younger man's presence.

"Cutter's over there," he said, nodding towards the familiar truck parked on the other side of the camp. Connor had a feeling that Ryan was trying to brush him off but in the circumstances he wasn't really bothered. He'd rather talk to the professor anyway.

He hurried over to the truck to find Cutter and Stephen there, searching through the equipment on the back.

"Connor," Nick said as he noticed him, a brief greeting. Stephen didn't acknowledge him however, choosing to continue his conversation with Cutter instead.

"Did she say for certain that she was with her?"

His voice was tight and worried and it made Connor frown, wondering what he was talking about.

"I don't know," Nick admitted, sounding like he wished he didn't have to, "She said her name at least which means she could be."

"Are you talking about Abby?" Connor butted in, seeing his opportunity.

Again, Stephen ignored him.

"Or she might just have been trying to ask you where she was," he pointed out, not a pessimist as such but more a realist. From what Nick had told him of Claudia's half heard message there could be no guarantees. She could have been trying to ask rather than tell them anything about Abby. The brief words Cutter had heard were not necessarily 'it's okay, she's safe' and that worried him greatly.

"Maybe," Nick agreed, almost brushing the matter aside as if not wanting to believe anything else was possible. He preferred the hope of them both being together and both safe. It was certainly preferable to earlier when he had no idea if either of them were alive.

"But it's not like we have any other leads," he added.

Stephen sighed, not disputing that fact but not liking it either.

"Yeah..." he agreed softly. For a moment it seemed as if he would leave it at that but apparently he couldn't help but voice his fears, feeling as if he was somehow letting her down if he didn't.

"I just don't like the idea that we might be getting this wrong and Abby's still out there needing help and we don't send anyone."

He'd been in situations like this before – out on an expedition and someone hadn't come back to camp when they should. It was something he was trained to deal with and he knew the best course of action was to check the most likely scenario first. He just couldn't seem to quieten the little voice in his head that was wondering if she was lying injured and trapped somewhere and that every moment they wasted following incorrect leads decreased her chances of being found in time. The voice angered him, it made him irritable at himself, but he couldn't silence it.

"I know," Nick replied, his tone understanding, trying to make him see that they were doing their best, "Ryan's getting a dog unit up here. We'll head off down the road and ask him to send the dogs in other directions. We'll cover as much area as we can."

Stephen nodded, seeing the logic in that plan. It was better than nothing at least.

"She definitely said the road, right?"

"I couldn't hear everything," Nick admitted, "But she said something about a few miles down the road. I assume she was trying to tell us where they are. And it would explain why her car isn't here."

"If she's with her car then why hasn't she driven back?"

Nick look slightly perturbed, frustrated by Stephen's continued questioning and doubts. He was trying to remain positive and Stephen's attitude was making that difficult.

"Maybe it's damaged," he snapped, "Maybe it's just broken down. Maybe the creature has them cornered..."

Stephen nodded grimly, getting Nick's point. They should be 'doing' not 'asking'.

"But whatever, we should get out there right?"

"Right," Nick agreed.

Stephen smiled a little. "Don't suppose she gave you a direction?"

Nick smiled wanly too. That was wishful thinking of course. "No."

"Well at least we don't have too far to check," Stephen pointed out, purposefully trying to think more positively now, knowing he was more use that way, "There's only one road through here. And once we get out of the camp a bit we can have a look round for signs of the creature. If it doesn't look like it headed that way we try the other."

"Right."

Connor had tried to interrupt a dozen times at least, barely following a conversation that meant little to him when he was so out of the loop. What he could gather was that Claudia and Abby were missing and there was some hope that they could be found and that made him more demanding than perhaps he would be normally.

"Would someone please tell me what the bloody hell is going on!" he blurted out taking advantage of the break in the conversation, a tinge of anger in his voice. This wasn't fair. He was worried too. Would it kill them to treat him like a useful member of the team and not some kid?

Nick turned to look at him apologetically. In truth, just for a moment, he'd totally forgotten the student was there.

"Connor," he said with a nod, realising that he really should explain what was going on to the younger man, "Right, I'm sorry. Something came through the anomaly and attacked the camp. We've found five of the soldiers but two are still missing."

"Along with Abby and Claudia," Connor surmised a little calmer now that someone was bothering to talk to him.

"Yes."

"But you've heard from them?" he guessed, the bits of conversation making more sense now.

"Claudia, yes."

"And Abby's with her?"

"Possibly."

He raised an eyebrow, not liking that word at all.

"Possibly?"

Nick clearly didn't want to get into that discussion again and quickly made his excuses.

"Look, I've got to go and talk to Ryan. It'll be okay," he said, adding the reassurance in hope of keeping Connor quiet.

He walked off before Connor could say any more.

"Okay," Connor said as he turned to Stephen instead, "What can I do to help?

Stephen was leaning into the back of the truck again, pulling out a couple of torches, searching through the boxes of equipment for whatever else he thought they needed.

"See that guy over there by the ambulance?" he asked, glancing up momentarily at the man in question, "He's got a mild concussion but he's more lucid than the rest of them and he got a good look at what came through the anomaly. Talk to him, see if you can figure out what it was. There's also some foot prints near the tents. They might help too. We think it's one of the mesonychia but it'd be good to know for sure."

Connor looked immediately affronted. That wasn't exactly what he had in mind. If Abby was out there and lost he wanted to help look for her, not be doing pointless research work. What did it matter what had attacked them? It was obviously big and nasty and needed shooting. They didn't need any research to tell them that. The scientific stuff could wait until later – they needed to find their friends first.

"What?" he protested, "No! I mean I want to come with you. I want to help properly."

"This is helping Connor," Stephen pointed out simply, "We need to know what we're facing out there."

But Connor wasn't buying that and couldn't help but wonder why Stephen wouldn't want him helping Abby. Then a thought struck him. One that had crossed his mind more than once in the past.

"Oh I get it," he said crossly, "You want to be the one rushing in there on your white horse, don't you? You know for someone who spends a lot of his time playing with her, you like being the hero to Abby."

"I'm not playing with her," Stephen said tightly, trying now to ignore the other man, accepting that in moments of worry people said silly things and getting into an argument with him would be counterproductive.

But Connor wouldn't let it lie.

"Really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, "Because one minute you're asking her to dinner, the next you've got a girlfriend. One minute you're flirting with her, next you're brushing her off."

"Look," Stephen snapped, not needing a reminder that his conduct towards Abby had been less than stellar at times, "We don't have time for this. Contact me when you know what it is."

He shoved a radio into the palm of the other man's hand and stalked off, leaving Connor fuming. For his part, the student stormed back to the car to get his laptop. The quicker he found out what this creature was, the quicker Stephen no longer had an excuse to leave him behind.

* * *

No matter how nervous she felt, Claudia was determined to keep a calm and controlled exterior. Even though every little sound in the forest was putting her nerves on edge she tried to make sure that in spite of her stomach turning knots inside, on the outside she looked confident and self assured. The last thing Abby needed to see was her panicking over every little thing. Nor did she need to know that Claudia was deathly afraid that should the creature find them again then Abby, with her injuries, would have little hope of escape as they fled.

She supposed some might say it was noble that she thought of the other woman's welfare even before her own but there was a tinge of selfishness in there too. Yes, of course, there was absolutely no way she wanted anything to happen to Abby, but there was also the matter of the repercussions should the worst come to pass. How could she ever go back to the others and tell them that she'd lost their friend and colleague? How could they ever forgive her?

She glanced sideways again, wondering if the fact that Abby's limp looked worse was because it was actually getting worse or if it was simply due to her own paranoia. She had offered her support, an arm around the other woman to help take some of the weight off and give her something to lean on, but Abby had brushed her off, saying she'd be okay. She didn't know if that was stubbornness on her part or if she just wasn't that comfortable with Claudia. They were colleagues and she liked Abby but they couldn't exactly be called friends. They hardly knew each other. Even in work related matters most of her interaction was with Nick, not the other members of his team. It was an issue, Claudia realised, that she really should do something about. She really ought to get to know the others better or risk being only one step up from Lester.

"How far from the camp do you think we are?" she asked, partly wondering if they should be keeping as quiet as possible but liking the apprehensive silence even less than she liked the occasional noise the forest seemed to throw at them only to scare her.

"Dunno," Abby said, and Claudia got the feeling that she was grateful to have something to distract her from the anticipation of an attack too, "A couple of miles? I got pretty turned about when I left. Can't believe I actually found you like that."

She paused for a moment before speaking again.

"Thanks, by the way. You probably saved my life."

"After I nearly killed you with the car first," Claudia pointed out with a wry smile.

Abby smiled slightly too, "Yeah, sorry about that. Oddly enough when I'm being chased by vicious animals the Green Cross Code goes right out of my brain."

"Well no harm done," Claudia said, knowing it wasn't necessary but wanting to keep the conversation going, "Apart from my near heart attack that is."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth she nearly had another.

She knew that they couldn't have both been oblivious enough to not hear it approaching them and so she surmised later that it must have been waiting, having seen them drawing near and had readied an ambush. She would have deemed it a lot smarter than she'd first thought if a mistake on its part hadn't saved both of their lives.

Her first instinct was to dive out of the way when a snarl and snap of teeth burst at her from the embankment on the right, a cry of surprise flying from her lips. She was so committed to simply avoiding it that she just leapt aside, forgetting Abby's injuries and pushing them both to the floor. Had it been free to move they wouldn't have stood a chance, certainly not having time to get up again before it pounced on them, pinning its helpless prey to the floor. As it was, in its eagerness to secure a meal, it lurched forward, obviously not watching precisely what it was doing, and got stopped by the group of tightly packed trees it had been using as cover. Seemingly surprised, it tried again, howling in frustration but finding that brute force wasn't enough to move the sturdy trunks.

Claudia just stared at it, a vicious super monster of the sort that usually only nightmares could bring, until Abby tugged her hard.

"Come on!" she insisted, scrambling to her feet.

They began to run, Abby going as fast as she was able and Claudia keeping pace with her, unwilling to leave her behind even though she knew it was hopeless. She didn't dare turn around but she could already feel the impact of the creature bounding towards them, having navigated its way out of the trees far too quickly.

In moments they would be dead.


	6. Chapter 6

**Part Six**

Just running struck Claudia as not the most well thought out of plans and she should have known that Abby would have come up with something better than that.

When she first saw Abby fall, Claudia's immediate reaction was to go to her aid but then Abby began to crawl forward and Claudia realised that she hadn't fallen at all but had instead deliberately thrown herself to the ground and was now making her way under a large thicket of bushes. Some sort of thorn bush but there was a gap underneath just large enough for them to crawl into. The idea was sound, she just hoped it worked in practice. It wasn't as though they had many other options.

She dropped to her stomach, crawling in after Abby, daring to take a look back and seeing the creature no more than ten feet away. For a moment Claudia was convinced that she couldn't possibly make it and when she felt a sharp yank on her jacket she instantly imagined she could feel teeth too and cried out in panic. It was only when the anticipated tug yanking her out from safety failed to materialise that she glanced back and realised that she was simply caught on the bushes. She wriggled hurriedly out of her jacket and moved forward as far she could. The thicket was wide, dense and tall and if they stayed in the middle somewhere they might just be out of reach.

The creature tried to ram its head straight through at them but immediately backed off when the thick twist of branches mostly held and all it got was a face full of thorns. It tried again and yelped a little when it had no more success and just more pain. Claudia covered her head with her hands, protecting her eyes as broken thorns and dead leaves rained down on them whilst it tried a third time.

No success. The tangle of bushes was simply too thick and too sharp for it to break through without considerable discomfort. It probably could get at them with a little more brute force but it knew better than to risk its eyesight even for a meal.

Claudia held her breath as the creature tried a different tactic, snapping its jaws at the base of the bushes. She doubted it could see them but it could probably smell them and it let out deep rumbling growl of frustration that got right into her flesh and almost made her insides ache with its intensity.

But its head was too large and it couldn't get its jaws anywhere near far enough in to grab at them even though it continued to snap futilely in their direction.

She could smell the coopery stench of blood on its breath. She wondered if it was anyone she knew, if the Special Forces men had all managed to get safely away.

Moments later it backed off, seemingly surrendering to defeat.

Claudia didn't dare even move until the sound of it leaving was long gone.

Then she rolled over, collapsing onto her back, closing her eyes and just letting the relief wash over her. They really shouldn't be alive and she was going to take a second at least to appreciate the fact that she was. That and to allow her thudding heart to calm and her breath to even out once more. She didn't want to sound panicked when she spoke to Abby.

Opening her eyes, having regained enough composure to make a stab at conversation at least, she turned to look at the other woman. Abby was lying on her back too, clutching at her side, her face even whiter than before. Claudia should have remembered – crawling on your belly with injured ribs would not have been pleasant for her in the slightest.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly.

"Just give me a minute," Abby replied, short and to the point, obviously struggling to talk and needing time to recover.

Claudia waited. She was in no hurry to leave the relative safety of the bushes. The gravity of what could have just happened to them both had left a deep impression even though she hated it, seeing it as weakness and wishing she could be more like the others. They seemed to be able to brush near death off so easily. It was something she both admired and found alarmingly reckless.

She reached a hand across and laid it on Abby's arm. It was silly really, not actually doing much, but a gesture of comfort all the same.

She had no way of telling the time but she surmised that a good fifteen minutes passed in silence. It was Abby who finally spoke.

"I think it's gone," she said, although the fact that she whispered it wasn't entirely reassuring, "We should start moving again."

Claudia had guessed she was going to say that and whilst the majority of her agreed with the idea there was a small part that was terrified at the thought. To her own shame she guessed that that must be the part that showed because when Abby looked at her she felt the need to justify her reasoning.

"We can't stay," Abby said softly, "No one will ever find us in here."

Claudia nodded, steeling herself, determined to make decisions based on practicalities not emotions.

"Of course. Let's go."

As they crawled out, Abby moving much more gingerly and with more care than she had the first time, Claudia tried to retrieve her jacket. Neither tugging it as hard as she could nor trying to carefully untangle it met with any success however and she had no choice but to leave it behind. That was all she needed, to be walking around in a shirt, wondering what would get her first; the monster or the cold. Although, in a way, freezing to death might be a rather ironic way to go considering all she'd already been through that night.

The fact that she was even having thoughts like that made her wonder how hard she'd hit her head earlier.

Climbing out into the moonlight again she was glad to see that Abby too was apprehensive, both of them looking around to check for any signs of danger whilst their hiding place was still so close by. Both wondering if the creature was waiting them out, hiding in the darkness mere feet away, ready to pounce now that they had emerged.

When, after a few moments, nothing had charged at them, they both visibly relaxed.

Claudia guessed that her own current appearance was likely to match Abby's; dishevelled and covered in twigs and leaves, any exposed flesh now patterned with scratches.

The sight of them gave her a thought and she involuntarily reached up to the cut on her forehead. It was still damp, not bleeding hard at but not sealing either. Her hair was sticky with blood as well. Was that how it had found them? Could it smell the blood like those flying creatures had done? Was it her fault?

She decided not to ask Abby. She really didn't need more bad news right now. Instead she forcibly put on her business-like manner, the determined, practical one she could turn on like a light, the one she could rely upon to get her through anything.

"Better get moving then, hmm? We can't be far."

* * *

Connor didn't even wait for them to say anything. As soon as he saw Cutter and the others returning he hurried straight up to them and blurted out one word.

"Andrewsarchus!"

Stephen frowned at him, looking like Connor was an interruption he could do without.

"What?"

"Andrewsarchus," Connor repeated triumphantly, both pleased at his quick work and delighted that Stephen had lost his excuse to keep him out of the search, "That's what came through the anomaly."

He didn't bother asking whether they'd found anything since they'd obviously returned empty handed and as he'd approached he'd heard Ryan saying something about checking the other direction instead. Clearly they'd had no luck.

Cutter's eyes widened slightly at the news, obviously unpleasantly surprised, "Really? Are you sure?"

He assumed that the professor must have considered the possibility but maybe he didn't think that they'd actually be that unlucky.

"Well," he said hurriedly, wanting to get through his reasoning quick and get on with the true job at hand, "The solider guy said it was furry and big and looked a bit like a wolf or a hyena. What with the foot prints I found being hoofed it has to be one of the mesonychia species, like you suspected, and with time period being the Late Eocene..."

He trailed, not really feeling the need to elaborate further, sure that Cutter got the idea.

"I know," Nick pointed out, shaking his head in denial, "But that doesn't mean-"

Connor could almost understand his unwillingness to believe it. It really was a worst case scenario and he too wished it was something else but facts were facts.

"I took some measurements," he interrupted, not seeing the point in Cutter's arguing against it considering what he'd found out, "From the footprints. I know we don't have a full skeleton of one but looking at comparative sizes from other members of the species this one's huge. I don't see how it can be anything else."

Nick paused for a moment then nodded with a weary sigh, conceding the point, "Yeah, you're probably right...Damn..."

Ryan clearly didn't like the sound of that. Nor did he like being left in the dark about the threat they were facing.

"So what exactly are we dealing with then?"

"Possibly the largest terrestrial mammalian predator that ever lived", Nick explained grimly before Connor could, the younger man not too put out at his thunder being stolen given the circumstances, "Anything up to about eighteen feet long, six feet tall and weighing about two thousand kilos. A big, nasty, powerful creature that's no doubt looking for a meal. The land it's come from is barren and its food supply is dying out. We're like a bloody gourmet buffet in comparison. It's not going to be in a hurry to get home any time soon."

From the grim look on Ryan's face he didn't need any more convincing about the seriousness of the threat but Connor decided to do so anyway.

"Probably looks something like this," he added, holding up his tablet PC to show the others a photo that he'd found on the internet. It was of a full scale model of one in a museum somewhere. It certainly did resemble a wolf but with an extra long snout full of extra large teeth. It had the appearance of power even in still life and he was sure that the others had noted, like he had, how small the people in the photo looked next to it.

"Okay, we need to split into two groups," Ryan said instantly, nodding at Nick and Stephen, "You two, Reynolds and I will continue to search for Miss Maitland and Miss Brown down the other side of the road. The rest can search for the creature. I'll get them into teams of three along with the dog handlers and they can start working search grids in the immediate area. We've got to find this thing."

It was a testament to how seriously they were both taking the threat that neither Stephen nor Nick argued with that even if it did mean less people looking for their friends.

"Don't suppose there's any chance of setting up a perimeter and containing it?" Ryan asked, the tone of his voice making it clear that he pretty much knew he was on to a loser with that idea.

As expected, Stephen shook his head, "There's far too much area to cover and this creature was designed to live in a forest environment. It's in its element and we're in the middle of thick forest in the middle of the night."

Ryan nodded and instead turned to his men, organising their search patterns.

Nick and Stephen headed back to the car, Stephen muttering something about not having the right kind of tranquilizer and Nick saying he needed to replace the batteries in his torch.

Purposely avoiding where Stephen was standing, loading darts with what Connor guessed was the strongest drugs they had, he instead headed for the passenger side where Cutter was, popping new batteries out of the packet and into the torch. If anyone would understand his need to help with the search, the professor would.

It was Cutter who spoke first upon seeing the younger man.

"Look Connor," he said, sounding truly apologetic, "About on the phone earlier...Sorry. I was just...well, I shouldn't have taken it out on you. And we should have called you sooner."

Yes, they should have but Connor was big enough to forget about it for now. At least Cutter admitted the mistake and that was more than he would have expected really. So he brushed the apology aside, accepting it off hand, wanting to concentrate on more pressing matters instead.

"It's alright. Look, I want to come with you guys and help with the search. I promise I won't get in the way and-"

He stopped as soon as he realised that Cutter wasn't listening to him. He would have been angry at the other man had he not followed his gaze and seen what had caught the professor's attention.

Lester had arrived and was talking to Ryan who looked even less pleased then he had done before.

Within moments, Cutter was there too, Connor deciding to stay well out of it. He had a feeling about how this meeting was going to go and didn't want to get caught in the crossfire.

"You know what's happening, yes?" Nick said shortly as he reached the two men.

Lester nodded, annoyingly calm and seemingly unflustered by the news.

"Right, we need more men out here. We've got to mount a proper search party for Claudia and Abby and for the creature. We've got a massive area to search in and-"

Lester held up his hand, effectively cutting him off.

"That's impossible," he stated, quite firm on the matter, "You already have all the men here who are cleared to know about the project. I can't bring anymore in. Besides, you have over a dozen soldiers and a dog unit, that should be quite adequate."

Nick was instantly annoyed by Lester's all too officious manner but not really surprised by it. He hadn't exactly expected overwhelming displays of concern from a cold suited official.

"Well it's not," he replied, just as firm as Lester had been, following him as the man walked off to inspect the area further, "Claudia and Abby are missing and could be in trouble. I don't think you realise how potentially dangerous this creature is. We're pretty much talking a super predator here, large, fast and deadly. We have got to find it before it gets out of these woods and someone gets killed. Or are you going to wait until some poor sod walking his dog comes across it tomorrow morning?"

"That won't be a problem," Lester said, apparently not bothered in the slightest by Nick's doom and gloom manner, "I've had all entrances in an out of the woods closed off – paths, bridleways and roads – the story we're using is an unexploded World War Two bomb that we're currently making safe for removal."

Nick shook his head, "You cannot possibly guarantee that someone won't get in. It's impossible to set up a full closure of a place like this."

Lester shrugged, "Well, if they want to flout the warnings we've put out for their own safety then more fool them."

Nick held his currently fragile temper through gritted teeth and a deep breath, knowing by experience that getting angry with the man was utterly futile.

"Look," he said, trying a different tactic instead, one he thought more likely to convince the Home Office official that more action was indeed required, "If this thing gets to a residential area we could have a disaster on our hands. Try covering that up."

Lester hesitated just for a moment, finally coming to a stop once more, considering the possibility before spoke.

"Then perhaps," he suggested coolly, looking directly at Nick, "if you're so concerned, we should divert all resources to looking for the creature instead."

A small part of him suspected that Lester was baiting him with such a loaded comment and he tried to force himself not to rise to it. He didn't quite manage it.

"Excuse me?" he asked, voice tight, knowing exactly what the other man was getting at but daring him to spell it out.

"I understand your concerns for Claudia and Miss Maitland, but if this creature is such a threat," Lester clarified, either not noticing or blatantly ignoring Nick's irate manner, "Then perhaps we shouldn't be allocating so much time and resources looking for two personnel who may already be dead and instead place our priorities elsewhere."

Nick simply turned and walked away. It was either that or punch the guy in the nose and, he reasoned, being hauled out of there and sent home wasn't going to help anyone.

Ryan quickly fell into to step beside him.

"We're still going to go and look for them," the captain stated quietly, ensuring that they were well out of Lester's earshot before he spoke.

"Of course we are."

"They might know important intel," Ryan pointed out, "Besides, if the reason they're not here is because it chased them then that's probably where it still is, out in that direction at least."

"However you want to word it so it sounds like you're following in orders is fine by me," Nick stated, utterly focussed on the task as they arrived back at the jeep, "Ready, Stephen?"

The other man nodded, rifle armed.

"I'm coming too," Connor chipped in.

Nick shook his head, speaking before the student had a chance to protest, "I'm sorry Connor but I've got something I need you to do here."

Despite his hesitance Connor listened and eventually nodded, perhaps not entirely happy with his role but seeing the necessity.

By the time he'd finished with his distraction, telling Lester everything he'd found out about the Andrewsarchus and what they might be facing, Nick, Stephen, Ryan and Sergeant Reynolds were equipped and off down the road to search once more.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part Seven**

As they walked it became clear to Abby that, even though Claudia was trying to hide it, the other woman had become ultra observant and more than a little paranoid. And to honest, Abby couldn't blame her. She could still feel the adrenaline pumping through her own veins from the attack, nerves still distinctly on edge. She kept an good look out, not only for signs of the creature itself, but also for potential hiding places should it ambush them again, her heart beating faster any time she realised that they were particularly vulnerable and away from safety. She said nothing though, not wanting to worry Claudia. Although, for someone so completely out of their comfort zone, the other woman was doing really well.

Looked like she was freezing though without her jacket now and hugging her arms around her to keep her warm. Wasn't much she could do about that though and to be honest it was the least of their worries.

She was aware that Claudia was keeping a much sharper pace than she had before and she didn't really mind. Abby didn't want to be out here any longer than necessary either. They hadn't made all that much progress so far, what with her limp and the attack and she surmised that they were still much closer to the car than they were to the camp. They needed to get a move on. Her body however wasn't quite up to the task and although she tried to push herself into ignoring the pain her sore ankle began to protest a little too much and her ribs were burning from breathing more heavily. She had to stop.

"I'm sorry," she said, utterly apologetic as she sat herself down on a fallen tree, "I just need a moment."

"It's fine," Claudia said reassuringly, sitting next to her, "Take as long as you need. You look dreadful."

She paused, realising how that had sounded. "Well, you know what I mean," she qualified.

Abby smiled slightly. After a few long moments of silence she spoke again. "We should talk," she stated, trying to ignore her throbbing ankle and hoping the pain would subside.

Claudia frowned, wondering what she meant by that. "Why?"

"Take our mind off things," Abby suggested, "Besides, it seems weird not to. And it's not like we get much chance normally."

In truth, despite not knowing her wonderfully well, Abby actually rather liked the other woman, which was a surprise considering that on first sight she had been prepared to hate her. She was a government official in charge of keeping things under wraps. There was almost some unwritten law that she should be the enemy. Yet Abby had found her reasonable, practical and willing to help. She still remembered how the pair of them had chased Rex around the Home Office building when he'd escaped from the researchers, surprised at the time that the woman would bother to look out for the wellbeing of the lizard. Since then she'd come to see that, whilst she didn't always agree with her stance, Claudia was only trying to take the best and least risky course of action for all involved. She doubted they'd ever be the best of friends or anything, they were two very different women with different lives after all, but in the very least they shouldn't act like strangers around each other.

From the way Claudia nodded at the suggestion Abby got the impression that she felt the same way.

"Very well," she agreed, "What do you want to talk about?"

"Anything. Tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up, what school did you go to, any brothers and sisters...?"

What she heard was rather what she had expected. Claudia was an only child from a very good family, her father a lawyer and her mother the chairwoman of some committee or another. She'd been to a good school, got good results and had studied law at university before joining the civil service. She wasn't surprised to hear that the other woman had once been in a relationship with a successful businessman although she was a little shocked to find out that it had almost got as far as marriage.

"What happened?" she asked, intrigued but not wanting to seem like she was being too nosy.

Claudia shrugged slightly, "I just started to realise that my family were more in love with him than I was. I think I was pretty much going along with it because it was what was expected. Mark was very successful and nice. What any woman would want really. But he wasn't for me."

Abby was unrelenting in her bluntness.

"And what about Cutter?"

She didn't really know what was going on between the two of them and Cutter was too much like her boss for her to feel comfortable asking. However, she'd seen enough of their interaction to spot that there was definitely something there on both sides.

"Excuse me," Claudia replied, seemingly startled by the question, acting as though she was a bit embarrassed about it, like a teenager caught out in a crush.

"I've just seen the way he looks at you, that's all," Abby said with a blasé shrug, not wanting to make it sound like an interrogation but interested all the same.

Claudia fell for her bait too easily.

"How's that then?" she asked after a hesitant moment, trying to make the enquiry sound nonchalant and not succeeding.

Abby grinned broadly.

"Like he's smitten."

She didn't profess to know Cutter very well but she knew enough about blokes to tell when one was interested. Nick Cutter was more than a bit interested in Claudia Brown, that was for certain. It was very sweet in a way, a chink in his usually gruff exterior.

"Please..." Claudia said, definitely embarrassed now, even blushing slightly, "We barely know each other."

Abby however got the distinct feeling that the idea he might be smitten with her wasn't an entirely unwelcome one.

"Well," she teased, "If you will both insist on flirting all the time..."

Claudia smiled at her then, seeing her game, knowing Abby was winding her up very slightly.

"We just work together, that's all. And he does have a wife you know."

"Yeah and she left him to go and wander around the past with dinosaurs," Abby pointed out bluntly, "If anything's a relationship breaker, that is...Look he's a nice guy. I say go for it."

"And I say it's not quite that simple," Claudia reasoned, before changing subject, clearly not entirely at ease with the topic of conversation, "Although I can't see any such hurdles with you and Connor. You two seem very close."

She was teasing the other woman in return although Abby didn't quite take it the way it was intended.

She gave Claudia an odd look, not exactly happy with the suggestion, "He's really nice but he's a friend, that's all. Besides, I've got my eye on someone else."

"Anyone I'd know?"

That threw Abby for a moment. Why exactly did everyone think there was something between her and Connor? What were they seeing that she wasn't? And if Claudia, the independent observer amongst them so to speak, could apparently see nothing between her and Stephen, was the chemistry she thought was there actually not as obvious as she believed?

"No," Abby said quietly, after a moment, "It's not that serious anyway."

* * *

Nick experienced an interesting mixture of relief and apprehension when Sergeant Reynolds found a telltale scratch on one of the trees not too far down the road. Covered in silver paint he said, like a car had scraped alongside it hard.

Claudia's car was silver, an SUV of some sort. It had to be them.

As soon as he realised that the nerves and clutch of apprehension had kicked in again. Of course he wanted to find them but part of him was scared of what they might discover when they got there. They hadn't heard from the girls in a good hour. A lot could happen in that time.

A few yards down the road, sitting in the grass to one side, Ryan discovered a wing mirror, again silver, cracked and obviously having been knocked off. Stephen said the tracks seemed to show someone had done a hand brake turn and not quite controlled the exit.

For some reason the thought of Claudia being able to do a hand brake turn made Nick smile. She did keep surprising him. She always had, right from the very first moment they'd met when she'd so brazenly kissed him, apologising with a cheeky smile and saying that it was a ruse to put off an unwelcome suitor. He suspected that, in truth, it was also part of her tactic to disarm him, to make it easier for her to get him on her side. He hadn't really concentrated on that however, something else holding his attention. It had been the first time he'd been kissed in eight years. The first time he'd felt even a brief closeness with someone for longer than that. The fact he'd found it more a little pleasant had been rather a surprise.

He grinned at the warmth of the memory for a moment before shaking himself out of the reverie and continuing on.

Stephen's tracking skills were almost second to none but hardly pushed by the situation – the tire marks were clear as were the hoofed footprints overlying them. The car had driven along here and the Andrewsarchus had been behind it. Running behind it, Stephen clarified, taking into account its stride pattern and length.

Further down the road, the men moving at a more hurried pace now they had something concrete to follow, the tyre tracks weaved more violently, heading towards the edge twice before they seemed to disappear. Nick had a feeling about what had happened but he allowed Stephen a moment to investigate the area to be sure.

Stephen carefully took a few steps down the embankment, checking the vegetation around him for telltale signs before nodding and confirming Nick's suspicions.

"It looks like they got pushed down here."

The four men walked carefully down the steep and uneven slope, torches searching the area whilst watching their footholds. They didn't need someone with a broken leg on top of all their other problems.

Reynolds shook his head in disbelief as, on Ryan's order, they spread out slightly to search better.

"How the bloody hell did it push the car down here?" he wondered aloud, "It wasn't like she was driving some little city run around or anything."

"Andrewsarchus hunted five ton herbivores," Nick pointed out, almost automatically being the teacher for once, "Cars are small in comparison."

There was silence then as they carefully worked their way onwards.

"Sir!" came Reynolds voice, about half way down, demanding their attention.

As they joined him, the soldier shone his torch onto his discovery; a tree stump that had clearly taken quite a hit from one side.

Stephen crouched down, getting a better look, running his thumb along the damaged edge before noticing something in the thick grass at its base. He wasn't entirely sure but he suspected that the bent and twisted piece of metal may have come from the car's axel.

"They hit this," he said with a grim nod, "It probably flipped the car."

Ryan shone his own torch further on, sure enough illuminating broken bushes and flattened grass where something heavy had rolled over them. A few feet on the torch light caught pieces of metal and a twinkle of reflection that was probably glass. Parts that had fallen off as they'd rolled down the embankment, obviously at speed.

Nick reacted first, half sliding his way down the rest of the incline in his urge to get there fast. In spite of their efforts to catch up he was several feet ahead of the others and so it was he who first caught sight of the car, battered and crumpled and lying on its roof.

* * *

Claudia felt that they had stayed still far too long but she bit her lip, not saying a word until Abby was ready to get going again. She forced herself to set a slower pace this time, slow and steady she decided being the order of the day. There was no point in rushing and then having to stop every quarter of a mile or so. As it was they hadn't exactly made great progress back towards the camp.

She kept a hopeful eye out ahead and up the embankment, checking for signs of movement on the road. Nick and the others were looking for them. Surely sooner or later they'd meet them coming the other way?

She was starting to wonder if they should have stayed with the car after all.

"What do you think of Stephen?" Abby asked, having been quiet for several minutes.

Something was clearly bothering her but Claudia was either too tired or too oblivious to know what it was. Did Abby have a bit of a thing for Stephen then? It certainly wasn't beyond the realm of possibility – he was a bit pretty for her tastes but not exactly uneasy on the eye. He had a slight action man thing going on too and she could understand the attraction that might hold. She'd never got the impression the two of them were that close though, having seen Abby interact with Connor far more than anyone else.

She decided to stick to a professional point of view, hoping she wouldn't tread on any toes that way. The last thing she needed now was a tired Abby in a grump with her because she'd said the wrong thing.

"He means well but he's reckless," she stated simply, her voice as professional as she could muster, "And I wish he would leave some of the things he insists on doing to Ryan's team instead. I don't doubt his experience but...well, you are all sort of my responsibility out here and I'd hate for anything to happen to one of you."

Abby smiled slightly, "If it makes you feel any better, we do try not to get ourselves killed."

"Try harder," she ordered, only half joking.

She paused, realising her assessment had come across as unnecessarily negative.

"Cutter seems to trust him though," she added, trying to make it clear that she didn't dislike the man or think him incompetent, "And he certainly seems nice enough. I don't know him very well to be honest."

Abby grinned wryly at that, "Don't think any of us do apart from Cutter. He seems to prefer it that way. Man of mystery."

Claudia nodded but she was only half listening, suddenly curious as to why she insisted upon calling him 'Cutter' when talking to other people about him. The psychology class she'd once taken would have insisted that it was a defence mechanism, that by keeping her references to him so formal she stopped anyone from wondering about how she truly felt about the professor.

Except, she realised, remembering her early conversation with Abby, it obviously hadn't worked.

And she couldn't help but noticed how, in her own head he was no longer 'Cutter' but 'Nick'. That that was how she addressed him to his face too, mostly when the others weren't around and she felt more comfortable with him. It was subtle shift but one of definite note.

She knew that her feelings were becoming an issue that she couldn't ignore, the professional in her slightly annoyed by the fact but being rapidly silenced. Almost more worryingly it was becoming one that she was choosing not to ignore, encouraging it in fact, teasing him about how he kissed her and enjoying their own brand of flirting. She even found herself surreptitiously looking at his lips and remembering what they had felt like or sometimes thinking so much about how lovely his accent was that she didn't listen to a word he said. It was utterly childish, she scolded herself, and it probably did affect how she did her job, something she really shouldn't allow.

She couldn't help herself, however, and was becoming more and more convinced that she should just throw professionalism to the wind and go for it. He obviously liked her and it wasn't as though she met men she felt this strongly for every day. She'd be a fool not to try.

And what better time than a life or death situation to make herself a promise?

So, she decided, if she got out of this alive then she would ask him to have a drink with her. Life, she had rapidly come to realise, was too precarious to not take a chance every now and again.

She smiled, pleased with her own decision.

"What's that for?" Abby asked with a frown of curiosity.

"Just...feeling positive," Claudia said to which Abby gave her an odd look but said nothing more.

Some things she preferred to keep private even from new found friends.

* * *

"Claudia!" Nick cried out, shining his torch around the immediate area, trying to keep his voice loud enough to be heard but not so loud as to attract any wandering predators in the vicinity, "Abby!"

No reply.

The car, he realised as he knelt down and took a good look inside, careful not to put his palms in the shattered glass littering the floor, was empty and there was no sign of the occupants anywhere nearby. The important question pressing on his mind was had this happened before or after he had spoken to her on the phone?

"What time did you call her?" Stephen asked, kneeling down on the other side of the car and checking things out for himself, obviously having similar concerns.

Nick quickly checked his phone.

"Well, this was a while before that," Stephen said, barely hiding his relief. He tapped the clock with his finger to prove it. The LCD clock was shattered, distorted and impossible to read. The hands on the other clock however were visible even through the cracked glass. They'd stopped at least three quarters of an hour before Nick had spoken to her and he could only assume that that was when the crash had taken place.

Stephen took another look round before standing and walking to the driver's side where Nick was, checking that too.

Nick moved out of his way and let him work.

"The seatbelts are intact," Stephen eventually stated, as much to himself as to the others, "The doors haven't been too badly damaged and the keys are in the driver's side – the occupants were definitely alive and got themselves out."

Nick could see Ryan nodding in agreement.

"The fact that the passenger side door is open too clearly suggests two people were in the car," Stephen added.

He didn't say 'and the other was probably Abby', perhaps not wanting to jinx it. After all, two of Ryan's men were still missing and there was a small possibility it was one of them who had been with Claudia.

Nick didn't think it likely though. She'd spoken of Abby on the phone and now it looked very much like she'd had a passenger with her. No, the likelihood was that the two of them were together somewhere. 'Where' being the operative word.

"I told her to stay put," he said, a little angry, knowing that this could be all over by now if she had only done as he had asked.

"Maybe she didn't hear you," Stephen soothed, "You said the phone sounded broken."

"Maybe the creature turned up and they had to leg it," Reynolds added, trying to be helpful.

Ryan glared him into shutting up.

Nick didn't want to hear it but he knew that was a distinct possibility. They'd obviously felt that they couldn't stay here. The idea of Claudia being out there, in the middle of the night with a dangerous creature nearby worried him immensely. If it had only been Abby then he probably would have been more at ease with her ability to cope. She had experience of animals and he'd seen she could handle herself in dangerous circumstances. But Claudia was a girl from the leafy suburbs who up until a few months ago had solely worked in offices. She'd never been in a situation like this before and he had no idea if how she would cope, if she'd panic or keep her head. Sure she was clever and often resourceful but this was a whole new ball game. She only had to make one mistake...

The notion of what could have already happened made him feel sick. It was the same feeling he'd had at country club when he'd seen the explosion and had thought that Claudia might have been caught in it. It was a hollow, empty feeling and he almost couldn't bear it.

For one wild moment he contemplated phoning her again, asking her where she was and if she was okay, but he suppressed the notion with commonsense. That could be dangerous for them – the Andrewsarchus could be near and the phone may catch its attention.

"Well there's no sign of blood in the car," Stephen reasoned, "And they clearly got out so hopefully they're not badly hurt. Maybe they decided to head back towards the camp."

Nick said nothing whilst Stephen searched the ground again, looking for more clues. He was getting more than a little fed up of 'hopefullys' and 'maybes'. He'd rather like to get some solid answers now.

Fortunately Stephen was able to supply him with at least one.

"Here," he said, pointing at what, to Nick, appeared to be an indistinct section of the ground, "There's a trail here. They must have gone this way."

Hurriedly they followed Stephen's lead, Nick trying to decide which feeling was stronger; the urge to hug her the moment she was in sight or the urge to start shouting at her for not staying with the car and causing him even more worry.


	8. Chapter 8

**Part Eight **

No one had really taught Stephen how to track. The skill was the product of a mixture of tips and experience he'd picked up during a gap year in the Amazon rain forest. A gap year that had soon become a permanent break from Uni when he'd realised that he loved field work too much and didn't really want to go back to England after all. He probably would have been quite happy staying and working there for the rest of his life if he hadn't met Helen Cutter.

Thinking about it in the cold light of hindsight, he'd known right from the start that she wouldn't be good for him but she'd had a way of drawing him in that he could neither fathom nor avoid. She'd told him straight away that she had a husband and he'd assumed for a long time, even though she continued to encourage his flirtations, that the thing between them was nothing serious, just her enjoying the flattery. After a time she'd told him that her marriage was unhappy. He'd believed her enough to sleep with her without guilt. And then she'd insisted he come back to England with her and he'd followed like an eager puppy, ashamed when he met her husband and found he liked the guy. Feeling even worse when Nick had confided in Stephen that his marriage had its cracks but that he was trying to fix them. Helen had got Nick to offer him a job and Stephen had been sure that was partly because she'd enjoyed seeing him squirm. It had amused her to see him becoming Nick's friend, at the same time torn between guilt over their affair and yet wanting it all the same.

He couldn't honestly say he'd ever stopped loving Helen but he'd certainly stopped liking her a long time ago.

He knew very well that he was a fool not to just forget about her and move on but he couldn't help himself. Abby clearly liked him and she had a nice personality and was great looking. Any sane guy would at least go on a couple of dates with her and see if it led anywhere. But she didn't press his buttons like Helen did and he wasn't going to lie to Abby and pretend she was everything. She deserved better than that.

Since returning to England and becoming Nick's assistant, his work had been a mixture of field and lab and he enjoyed it, the contrast suiting him. When they'd first come across the anomalies, however, he'd come to realise that he was being posed his first challenge in years. Tracking and containing extinct animals was something else entirely and to be honest, despite the obvious dangers, he was enjoying their new line of work.

And so now, even though he was concerned for Abby and Claudia, he did relish the test of tracking them through thick forest in the depths of the night. He enjoyed the challenge of following their trail, picking up hints of their footsteps in patterns that he knew the others couldn't see.

That was until he found tracks from the Andrewsarchus again and then any enjoyment vanished immediately, replaced by concern.

"It must have been waiting for them here," he stated, checking out a small copse of trees at the side of the embankment, noticing that they showed signs of having been violently hit by a large force. Ryan and Reynolds had their guns at the ready, scanning the area around them but there was no need. The ground told Stephen that the Andrewsarchus had left and hadn't been back since.

"They went this way," he said, easily picking up the harder imprints left by running feet. He ran too, following the trail until it disappeared beside a thicket of bushes. He dropped straight to his belly, looking underneath them, knowing exactly what he'd have done in their situation. The beam of his torch illuminated something and he asked Ryan for his knife.

Moments later he'd freed and retrieved a woman's jacket. He handed it straight to Nick.

"It's Claudia's," the professor confirmed, after a moment.

In any other circumstances Stephen would have teased him about being able to smell her perfume or knowing her wardrobe too well.

"There's no blood here," Stephen said after dropping to the floor again and making doubly sure he hadn't missed anything, "I don't think it got at them."

That revelation did nothing to soften the grim look on Nick's face and Stephen could understand that. Just because they had got away this time didn't mean they'd been so lucky a second time and if the creature had found them once...

"Where did they go?" Ryan pressed.

Stephen instantly realised his mistake and berated himself for it. In his eagerness to follow the tracks he'd been careless. He should have made the others stay back whilst he checked the area but now whatever footprints were here had been covered with their own, making his job all the more difficult. He ordered them to all stay still, not wanting them to make a further mess of things. It took him longer than he would have liked but he eventually found the distinctive square heel impression that he was sure was from Claudia's shoes. They didn't strike him as something Abby would wear.

"The Andrewsarchus went that way," he said, indicating the trail he'd found heading away from the road and deeper into the forest, "Abby and Claudia went that way." This time he pointed in the direction parallel to the embankment. "They must be trying to make their way back to the camp."

Nick sighed heavily, "And they couldn't have stayed put and waited for us to come and get them, could they?"

Stephen smiled slightly. "Doesn't seem their style."

"Ms Brown's got her head screwed on right," Ryan added, "They'll be okay."

Stephen glanced across at Ryan, noticing that the Captain was looking fixedly in the direction the creature had headed. He appeared to be wrestling with a decision for a moment before he suddenly made up his mind.

"This way," he ordered, following the direction Claudia and Abby had taken.

Stephen was grateful to him but said nothing.

A few hundred yards up the road he brought them all to a halt, wanting to check very carefully before he said what he suspected. He looked around, holding his hand up to silence Nick when the professor asked what the problem was.

"Andrewsarchus tracks," he said after a moment, "They're pretty fresh. I think it's following them."

They all set off at a run.

* * *

"You know, next time Cutter wants a volunteer to stay at the anomaly, I'm heading straight home and into the bath," Abby said with grouchy determination as the incline in the route they were taking got steeper.

Claudia let out a short laugh, "Yes, and next time Lester wants someone to go and check in on the team watching the anomaly he can do it himself."

Abby grinned a little even through the pain and growing exhaustion. It wasn't like they'd walked far but her ankle and ribs were making it much harder going than she would have normally found it, the effort of dragging her aching body along tiring her out quickly. Claudia didn't look like she was doing much better either. She didn't have so many physical injuries, although the cut on her head was still bloody, but she was undoubtedly sore, battered and bruised. Shivering violently now too, Abby noticed, the other woman's voice shaking whenever she spoke. Abby had offered Claudia her own jacket but the other woman had declined, probably out of some notion that Abby was the more injured of the two and hence needed it more and no amount of insistence on Abby's part would make her change her mind.

"Okay," Abby announced breathlessly, "That's it. We're stopping."

She sat heavily on the floor exactly where they were, not bothering to find a log or something this time. Claudia dropped down next to her, hugging her knees to her chest to keep the cold out.

"Well, you've got a genuine excuse for Cutter to give you a big hug when we back now," Abby teased with a grin.

"Oh you're very funny," Claudia replied, dryly, voice still quivering.

Abby scooted closer to Claudia and put an arm around her shoulders, rubbing her hand vigorously up and down Claudia's arm to try and get the blood flowing again.

"'Fraid I'll have to do for now though," she said, causing Claudia to smile a little.

There was a moment's silence and Abby thought she heard movement. She looked surreptitiously around, not wanting to alarm Claudia, secretly hoping that she'd suddenly see torchlight and their rescuers. No such luck though. And when nothing charged at them she figured it must have been a fox or a badger. Maybe even a deer. The creature from the anomaly wasn't the only animal in these woods after all.

"I think I might take a day off tomorrow," she said lightly, speaking just to break a silence that only seemed to be making her more paranoid.

Claudia nodded decisively, "Me too."

* * *

Stephen stopped running so sharply that Nick only just pulled up in time to prevent himself barrelling into the back of other man.

"What's wrong?" he asked, bending over, hands resting on his thighs as he took the opportunity to catch his breath. He really needed to get to the gym more. Or at all.

"I've lost the tracks," Stephen said almost in disbelief as he frantically looked around, trying to pick up the trail again. But it was no good.

"Ground's too hard here," Reynold's confirmed, looking worryingly grim.

They had been doing so well, Stephen following the trail to a fallen tree where they'd apparently rested. He'd said that the footprints seemed to show that one of them – likely Abby from the shoe imprint - was limping and that was probably why they'd stopped. He was sure that the four them were catching up with their missing colleagues. Unfortunately that probably meant the Andrewsarchus was too.

"Spread out," Ryan ordered, "Keep heading this way. We'll cover as much ground as we can."

He, Reynolds and Stephen dashed off further into the woods, leaving Nick to continue along the base of the embankment. If they were in luck then he would find them a little further on, continuing along this path, safe and well. If the creature had got there first and they'd been forced to flee again, then they could have run off into the woods and the chances of just the four of them coming across the ladies in such a vast area wasn't great.

That was if they had escaped at all.

* * *

Abby knew it was no deer making that noise. The glimpse of an outline moving through the trees a few hundred yards away confirmed it.

Claudia was talking quietly, pondering what car the Home Office would give her as a replacement and wondering how well the suggestion of an Aston Martin might go down.

Abby leant in a little more closely.

"It's found us," she whispered although she didn't know why since the creature wasn't exactly going to understand what she said.

Claudia didn't need her to clarify what she meant.

"Where is it?" she murmured, obvious fear in her tight voice, body visibly tensing.

"Trees to our right."

Claudia whipped her head round and Abby instantly dug her nails hard into her arm to distract her.

"Don't look!" she whispered harshly, "It doesn't know we've seen it. It's an ambush predator and there's way too much open ground between us and it. While it thinks it's in cover it's going to try and figure out a way of getting closer. Or it's going to wait for us to get up and come to it."

Lions would do that. They'd watch a herd, figuring out the route they were taking and then lay in ambush ahead, waiting to pick out the weaker targets as they passed.

"Oh god..." Claudia whispered, voice shaking even more than it had done with the cold, "What do we do?"

"I'm thinking," Abby said, trying to sound reassuring but only coming off panicked and lost. There was no obvious cover nearby at all. Climbing a tree was out; she'd never make it up there with her bad ankle.

"Maybe...maybe I should get it to follow me," Claudia suggested after a tense, silent moment.

Abby's veins ran cold, a sickness developing in her stomach at what the other woman was saying.

"What?" she asked, struggling to even get the one word out.

"You're injured, Abby," Claudia reasoned softly, clearly terrified but determined all the same, "You can't outrun it."

Part of Abby was incredibly touched by the offer and part was disgusted. In the end it was anger that won out, appalled with the idea that someone could get killed because of her.

"Neither can, you unless you're an Olympic athlete now as well," she snapped firmly, "And I am not going back and telling Cutter I got you killed so you can forget it, okay?"

"Well, what then?" Claudia bit back, sounding almost hurt by Abby's reaction but the other woman didn't care as long as it put Claudia off doing anything stupid.

Abby looked around once more. There weren't any good possibilities but there were possibilities all the same. It seemed most sensible to go for the one closest to them and furthest from the creature waiting in ambush.

"The undergrowth over there," she said, nodding to an area a good twenty feet from where they were sitting. "It's quite dense. If we get in and start crawling through before it reaches us we might be able to lose it."

Claudia's frowned, "That's a horrible plan."

She was right of course but still...

"Are you concealing any weaponry in that shirt?" Abby asked, deliberately flippant to make her point.

"No."

"Then we don't really have any other choice, do we?"

"Okay," Claudia acknowledged, looking like she was desperately trying not to think about what was going to happen, "When do we move?"

"Now."

Abby dragged Claudia to her feet by a handful of shirt and the pair of them began to run. Abby heard a crash of breaking vegetation as the creature burst from its hiding place after them, letting out a menacing growl.

They would make it, she told herself. They'd made it this far and she wasn't about to believe their luck would desert them now.

And then she fell, her foot catching a divot in the ground and her already painful ankle collapsed underneath her.

She tried to clamber back to her feet immediately but burning pain shot through her whole leg and she crumpled again. Claudia obviously realised after only a few feet that Abby wasn't beside her and she instantly ran back, her frightened face telling Abby how close the creature must be getting even though she didn't dare look back herself. Claudia grabbed her under the arms and tried desperately to haul Abby back to her feet but it was no good, her ankle was in agony and wouldn't support her.

"Just go!" Abby insisted, trying to push the other woman away as the creature bore down on them terrifyingly fast.

"No!"

It was too late. Abby expected to hear a roar of attack any moment. She was surprised when a startled yelp came instead.

She and Claudia both turned to see that the creature had stopped and was facing the other way, resting low on its haunches and growling in warning anger. A dart was hanging limply in one of its flanks and Stephen was its focus as he hurriedly loaded a second one into the gun.

Abby saw the overwhelming danger in the situation. She knew full well that the tranquilizer they carried wasn't strong enough to take down something of this size in just one shot. With the adrenaline undoubtedly running through the angry creature even a double dose may not have an effect and even if it did it would be several minutes at best before it kicked in. Stephen didn't have that long.

He fired off another shot just as the creature charged at him and the dart missed, landing uselessly in the ground.

Stephen turned on his heels ran and back through the trees and out of sight, leading the creature away from them which instantly went crashing after him.

Abby saw Claudia look desperately in his direction and then back to Abby, torn.

Abby made the decision for her.

"Go and help him!" she insisted through gritted teeth, her ankle ablaze with pain.

Claudia shook her head. "I can't leave you here like this."

"Claudia, it will kill him," she said desperately, not even trying to hide just how much that thought scared her.

"Okay," Claudia said, after an uncertain moment, "Er...stay here..."

Abby looked skywards as Claudia ran off, collapsing back into the grass as she tried to take deep breaths to stop herself from passing out or throwing up. 'Stay here'? Because, yeah, she was really in a position to go anywhere.

No, all she could do was wait and hope that her friends made it.

* * *

It was easy for Claudia to follow the trail through the trees. The flattened path the creature had left behind was obviously and she could hear it crashing through the woods ahead as it tried to hunt Stephen down.

She knew she must be completely mental to be actually following it and she didn't really have the first clue of how she was going to help him, but the idea that she might be able to pushed her on. He'd just saved their lives and it was the least she could do in return.

She ran hard, pausing only momentarily when she spotted something on the floor. A torch, she realised, as she picked it up. A big maglite. Stephen must have dropped it.

Moments later she suddenly found herself beyond the tree line in a small clearing.

Stephen was running towards her, obviously having doubled back. The gun must have been lost somewhere because it was no longer in his hands.

The creature was mere feet behind him and gaining.

She didn't know what gave her the idea but almost on auto pilot her trembling hands turned the torch on and she held it up, aiming the beam directly at the creature's eyes.

It took a snap at Stephen but instantly lost its coordination, coming to a halt, momentarily blinded by the bright light. She saw it shake its head in confusion, pawing at its face as though trying to figure out what was stopping it from seeing properly. She doubted it would take too long to recover.

Stephen grabbed her hand as he reached her and then pulled her along behind him as he began to run for the tree line once more.

The torch fell out of her hands and she was too shocked to insist that he wait for her to pick it up.

She soon recovered enough of her wits to at least think objectively about what they were doing. She was about to remind him that they couldn't possibly keep running around in the woods hoping they'd lost it, when she saw that that wasn't his plan at all. Instead he stopped at the first good sized tree they came to and quickly began to climb up it, reaching a hand down to help Claudia as soon as he was on the nearest sturdy branch.

She decided now was not the time to mention how rubbish she'd been at tree climbing as a girl.

She didn't know precisely what happened next. All she knew was that one moment her hand was in Stephen's as he helped haul her up the tree and the next she felt a massive, solid impact to her side and his fingers were gone and she was flying quickly through the air before landing on the floor with a heavy thump.

Adrenaline got her instantly to her feet again in spite of her spinning head.

The creature stalked towards her, growling low, ready to pounce.

A quick look left and right showed her no obvious salvation.

"Claudia, run!" Stephen shouted, already scrambling down the tree and trying to come to her aid.

But there was nothing he could do and he certainly wouldn't get to her in time.

She didn't know what was going to kill her first, the creature's attack or the anticipation of it. The fact that she seemed to have stopped breathing was bound to become an issue very shortly as well.

The impact didn't come from the front as she expected, but from the side, knocking her hard to the floor again, her already pounding head bouncing off the solid ground. It took her several moments to realise that the thing pressed so close to her was another person's body. A body that was trying to protect hers as the clatter of gun fire filled the air followed by series of pained howls. She lay there, panting heavily in shock as there was a thud and she saw the creature fall to the ground just feet away.

Being alive felt utterly strange when she'd been so convinced she was about to die.

She couldn't move, so she just lay there dazed and shocked, trying anything to stop the violent trembling and to control her quick breathing.

"It's alright," a soft voice said close to her ear, "It's okay. You're safe."

It was Nick, his hand now trailing soothingly up and down her back as he continued whispering comforts to her.

In moments she gathered herself together enough to sit up at least, tucking her hair behind her ears as she looked at the scene around her; the creature lying dead as Ryan and one of his men checked to make sure it really wasn't about to get back up again, Stephen running his fingers through his hair looking relieved, and Nick, sitting on the ground next to her, hand still resting lightly on her back.

"You okay?" he asked, after a moment, his free hand gently tipping her head to look at him rather than staring so fixedly at the thing that had nearly killed her.

She nodded, sharp and uncoordinated, her voice still lost somewhere. The sensible part of her brain told her she was almost certainly in shock.

It felt better when Nick put both arms around her and pulled her into a hug, so she closed her eyes and surrendered.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:** Final chapter. Thanks for reading and to those who reviewed.**  
**

**Part Nine**

The walk back to the camp wasn't long and Claudia insisted on doing it, even though Nick tried to dissuade her. Ryan and Reynolds had stayed with the dead creature and Stephen was sitting with Abby, who was definitely in pain but not seriously injured. A medic and an ambulance were on the way to pick her up.

Claudia needed the time to gather herself though, needed the crisp cool air in her lungs and needed the exercise to clear her head. She also needed to get rid of some of the nervous energy still flying through her muscles.

She was lost in her own internal world as she walked until she felt a sudden warmth and realised that Nick had draped his coat around her shoulders.

"You look cold," he reasoned.

"I'm alright," she insisted, brain still running mainly in automatic.

He raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"You're blue."

For once she didn't argue.

Most of the rest of the journey continued in silence and she was grateful for his understanding. After a few minutes he slipped his hand wordlessly into hers and didn't let go until they were back at the camp.

* * *

Abby sat up in bed, pillows propped behind her and let out a bored sigh as she looked around the sparse room. A couple of hours ago she would have given anything to be safe and sound in a bed, and now? Now she was remembering how mind numbingly dull hospitals were.

Still, it could have been worse. Her ankle wasn't broken which was a massive surprise because it certainly felt like it. But no, the x rays had shown nothing and so the doctor had said it was simply bad soft tissue trauma. Apparently she also had a bruise the size of her fist on the side of her head, not that she'd really notice anything, assuming that her headache was just a result of the car crash. She had several cracked ribs as well but nothing too serious and they'd said and long as the head trauma showed no signs of getting worse then she could go home in the morning if she was feeling up to it. She knew she would be. Nothing would keep her here longer than necessary.

She was just becoming resolved to lying down and attempting to sleep away the time until she was allowed home, when there was a short knock on her door and she looked up to see Stephen there, smiling warmly at her.

"All right," she said, trying not to let her face beam with a grin that was way too obvious.

"How you feeling?" he asked, taking a couple of paces into the room but still staying a noticeable distance from her bed.

She tried to ignore that, telling herself he was still just feeling a little sheepish after their stupid argument earlier in the night. After all, he'd been fine when they'd been sitting in the forest waiting for the ambulance. He'd even put an arm round her shoulders. She guessed it was only now with the crisis over that he remembered their cross words and probably felt bad about them.

"Better," she said with thanks, "Pain medication is a wonderful invention."

He nodded and an awkward silence. He seemed to teetering on the verge of saying something and she was trying to decide whether she should push him into just doing it or start chatting about something else entirely to make things more comfortable when he spoke again.

"Look, Abby, about what was said earlier-"

Already prepared for that, she held up her hand to interrupt him. "On the basis that you saved my life, I think you get automatically forgiven for anything daft you said. And the same applies for at least the next twenty four hours as well."

Stephen smiled but only a little, "Well that's nice to know. And I didn't mean to offend you or anything. It's just, I get the feeling you like me and I want you to know that-"

Whatever he was about to say Abby didn't discover because at that moment Connor shot into the room with all the excitement of a kid going for his toys on Christmas morning. He went straight over and flung his arms around her in a big, clumsy hug, obviously remembering she was sore but still enthusiastic all the same.

She couldn't really be angry at him for being so delighted to see her even though he'd just ruined a potentially important moment. Whatever Stephen had to say she was sure it would just have to wait a little while longer. And besides, she reminded herself, the chase was half the fun. Not to mention that she'd rather he was chatting her up when she looked a bit less of a state.

Stephen, stepped back, giving Connor room as the younger man dragged a chair up, obviously planning on staying a while.

"Look, I'll come and see you in the morning, yeah?" he said, making his excuses to leave, "Ryan's heading back to the anomaly site soon and I said I'd go and help him keep an eye on the place until it closes."

Abby beamed a grin at him.

"All right."

"Take care."

As he reached the door, Stephen turned and watched Connor almost bounding around Abby, promising her that when she got home the next day he'd be her willing slave, that he'd have everything all nice for her, that he'd cook her all her meals and do all the tidying up...

It saddened Stephen to see that she didn't really see how smitten Connor was with her. She'd be so much better off with a nice guy like that.

In the end Stephen knew it didn't matter how much she liked him nor how long she waited for him to say what she wanted to hear. It wasn't to be – his heart was firmly elsewhere. If only he could pluck up the courage to tell her that.

* * *

Claudia winced slightly as she experimentally fingered the stitches in her forehead. Her palms were still stinging as well after been cleaned properly just to ensure that none of the myriad of scratches there got infected. And her body was aching all over. She was sure she'd be covered in bruises come the morning. The doctor had said that apart from a few superficial injuries she was fine but, with the bang to her head being a concern, she would need to stay in for a couple of hours observation anyway just in case.

Nick had been with her ever since he had come to her rescue in the forest, first walking back to the camp with her, then sitting with her in his car and only briefly leaving to get a blanket to wrap around her shivering shoulders. He'd then crouched in front of her and had taken her hands in his, trying to warm them whilst at the same time being careful of the multitude of scratches. He'd driven her to the hospital too when she'd stated so firmly that she didn't want to go in the ambulance and that it was Abby, not her, who needed the medical attention. He'd sat with her whilst she was checked over and had her head stitched, saying nothing but being a calming presence in the room all the same.

He'd finally gone now, to check up on how Abby was doing and he'd said he'd be back soon. She was beginning to wish that she'd insisted on going with him because the sterile, empty hospital room was giving her too much time to think. She was grateful when her first interruption arrived.

It was Captain Ryan, apparently having been in to visit his injured men briefly before heading back out to the anomaly site. She was rather touched that he would think about checking in on her too.

"Glad to see you in once piece, ma'am," he said with a genuine smile after knocking courteously on her door and being invited in.

She nodded gratefully. "Thank you. Did you find your missing men?"

She'd managed to get most of the details about what had actually happened from Nick as he'd driven her to the hospital but she was still annoyingly in the dark on some things.

Ryan's face was instantly grim and he shook his head. "Search team found one body and some...remains."

She lowered her gaze to the floor, "I'm sorry."

"Could have been much worse," the captain pointed out, "We were lucky in the circumstances."

Moments later he left, saying that he had to get back to the still active anomaly.

Her second visitor wasn't nearly so welcome.

Lester enquired briefly after her health when he arrived although whether from a genuine concern or social politeness she couldn't tell. She was feeling weary and particularly ungenerous though, so she attributed it to the latter.

He was apparently tired and in no mood to play nice. Not that he generally did 'nice' anyway. His questions started off innocuous enough, basic queries about what had happened. Then he threw in an offhand sounding comment that immediately got her hackles up.

"Of course that's two more deaths to add to the total. I think we're going to have to have a closer look at how field operations are being run..."

She glanced up sharply, having only paid perfunctory attention to him up until that point. Was he really trying to suggest that this was somehow her fault?

In hindsight Nick might have just saved her job by turning up when he did. Tired and slightly emotional she might actually have slapped Lester if that line of questioning had continued. Fortunately, Nick took one look at her stony, offended face and set quickly to action.

"Cutter," Lester said brightly, "I was just-"

"Leaving," Nick finished, ushering him very effectively out of the door and closing it.

Claudia almost laughed but smiled instead.

"That's the second time you've rescued me tonight. It's becoming rather a habit."

"Not a problem."

"How's Abby?" she asked, as he sat himself next to her on the bed. She'd refused to get changed and get in it, reasoning that she had no intention of staying here any longer than necessary.

"Fine," Nick said with a nod, "Connor's doing an excellent job as nurse maid by all accounts."

Claudia did laugh a little this time.

"How's your head?" Nick continued, almost subconsciously reaching up and brushing her hair away from the stitches as though checking all was still well.

"Feels like someone's trying to drill their way out of it," she admitted, too tired to feel embarrassed by the intimacy of his action, "They think I might be concussed but I'm assured it isn't going to explode or fall off at any moment so that's a blessing."

"Good. You look much better with your head attached..." he paused a moment, wiping the gentle humour from his face before becoming a little more serious, "And how are you?"

She knew what he meant.

"Recovering," she settled on after a moment's thought, "There's only so many times you can nearly die in one night before it leaves a bit of an impression."

"You'll get through it," he said with blunt honesty, "You're a strong woman, Claudia Brown."

She bit her lip and looked straight ahead, almost uncomfortable with the praise.

"Look," she said, after a moment, "You don't have to stay here..."

She didn't want to be a burden nor want him to stay simply because he thought he ought to. It was only fair to give him a get out clause.

"I know," he said dismissively, "But I want to. Now let me make myself useful. Is there anything you want?"

"Well, since coffee and wine are off of the menu I could at least do with a cup of tea," she said gratefully, "Decaffinated, obviously. I don't need any more reasons not to sleep."

He smiled as he stood, "You never know, if you're lucky there might just be some chocolate in the offing too."

"My hero," she teased.

He paused before leaning across and leaving a lingering kiss her on the forehead before he left.

* * *

The next morning was bright and sunny and left her feeling far removed from all that had happened the previous evening. If it wasn't for the stitches on her forehead she could barely imagine it had actually been real. That and the fact she'd had the unenviable duty that morning of visiting the families of the dead men with Captain Ryan to offer their condolences and false explanations as to what had happened. Dangerous animal escape, they'd said.

She'd arrived at work by train and a short walk but by lunch time another car had already been assigned to her. Not an Aston Martin unfortunately but an identical replacement SUV. She took immediate advantage of it and in the early afternoon drove herself over to the university. She found Nick, unsurprisingly, in his office.

"How's the surveillance plan going?" she asked once he'd offered her a seat and his enquiries about how she was feeling were out of the way.

"Nothing so far," he admitted, "I'm sure I'm right but proving it is going to be problematic."

"Well, we'll just have to keep trying," she insisted, sitting back in the chair, far more at home in the room than she probably should be, "The more information we have about these anomalies the better. If we can predict them then we can keep people safe more effectively."

She was still trying desperately hard not to let Lester's words get to her although she couldn't help but have some doubts. Maybe the way she handled things at times was causing unnecessary problems. Maybe she wasn't focussing hard enough on prevention rather than cure when it came to these anomaly incidents. She didn't really think it would be possible to stop them but at very least they needed a greater understanding about how, why and when they were likely to occur. She supposed the best she could do with Lester's comment, if she couldn't forget it, was let it make her more determined to do her job as well as she could.

Nick studied her from across the desk for a moment before speaking and she wondered if somehow he had an idea what she was thinking.

"Abby was very complimentary about you, you know?"

"She was?" Claudia asked, wishing she didn't sound quite so surprised.

"Yeah. She said you handled yourself admirably out there."

She began to tuck her hair behind her ears, self consciously, brushing his praise aside with a shrug. "Well, beginners luck, I guess."

Nick wasn't having any of that.

"You got her safely back," he said, rather solemnly, "I'd say it was more than luck". Then he smiled and added, "We might make a field officer out of you yet."

She smiled as well but said nothing, although she couldn't help but be secretly pleased. Maybe she wasn't going to be such a hindrance to them after all. She wasn't the expert many of them were but she was learning at least.

"Look," she began, talking hurriedly before she lost her nerve, getting to the real reason why she had made herself come here, "this may be a little...well, I was thinking...when I was out there I made myself a promise that I would ask you this and I was just wondering if perhaps you'd like to-"

She stopped as Stephen suddenly entered the room, smiling warmly at her.

"You all right?"

She nodded, her confidence suddenly gone.

"Actually," Nick said with a smile, "Claudia was just about to ask me something..."

From the way he looked at her she had a suspicion that he'd got an idea of what that was.

"Another time," she suggested with a small smile of her own.

He nodded, obviously content to wait.

Tomorrow, she promised herself. Barring no disasters in the meantime she would ask him tomorrow.


End file.
